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Colombian Hostages Freed, Including Sarasota Man

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The Associated Press

Published: July 2, 2008

BOGOTA, Colombia — One of the hostages the Colombian military says it rescued from leftist rebels on Wednesday is from Sarasota. Keith Stansell was rescued along with former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, two U.S. military contractors and 11 other hostages.

Stansell's family says they're excited about the news.

His ex-wife Kelly says she has been asked by officials not to speak to the media until he is back in the states.

His family says they have not received any word on when Stansell will return the the U.S. The hostages were flown to Bogota, Colombia, this afternoon.

The family says that during the former marine's captivity, his son, Kyle, travelled to South America to plead for his release.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos says no one was hurt in the operation in eastern Colombia.

He said army commandos captured rebels manning a security ring around the hostages and got them to persuade their comrades to turn over the captives, without any loss of life.

Santos says the other 11 hostages freed were Colombian soldiers and police.

Betancourt, Americans Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Stansell, and the other hostages were taken to a military base.

Stansell was doing drug surveillance for the Department of Defense when the plane crashed in February 2003. Authorities said four other men were traveling with him when they went down in a remote, mountainous region of the country's capital, Bogota.

In Paris, Betancourt's son Lorenzo Delloye-Betancourt called her release after six years of captivity, "if true, the most beautiful news of my life."

Note: An earlier version of this story identified the wrong hostage as coming from Sarasota.

Katie Coronado of News Center 8 contributed to this report.

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