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15 Hostages Free; 1 Has Local Ties

The Associated Press

Keith Stansell was captured in 2003 while conducting antidrug operations in Colombia.

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By KIM HACKETT

Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: July 3, 2008

Colombia freed U.S. military contractor Keith Stansell, whose family lives in the Sarasota-Bradenton area, and 14 other hostages including kidnapped presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt from leftist guerrillas Wednesday, saying commandos tricked rebels into giving them up without firing a shot.

Stansell and two colleagues from Northrop Grumman Corp. had been the longest-held U.S. hostages in the world.

Their rescue, along with 11 Colombian police and soldiers, dealt the most serious blow ever to the 44-year-old Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, which viewed the Americans among their most valuable bargaining chips.

Stansell, captured in 2003 while flying antidrug operations, was turned over to U.S. officials in Colombia and flown to Texas early today.

Stansell's parents live in Bradenton, while his ex-wife and two children are from Sarasota.

"It's absolutely amazing," said Stansell's daughter, Lauren, 19. "Our only concern is taking care of my dad."

Lauren was told Wednesday afternoon that her dad was on a helicopter heading out of the Colombian jungle.

"I'm a little shocked," said Kelly Coady, Stansell's ex-wife and the mother of their two children.

Coady had not had a chance to talk to her son, Kyle Stansell, a student at Cardinal Mooney High School in Sarasota.

Lauren Stansell did not want to talk long because she was waiting for a phone call from a government official to tell her where to fly to meet their father.

"We're still teary-eyed and not quite have our wits about us," said Stansell's stepmother, Lynne.

Stansell, 44, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes were captured after their plane crashed and held by the rebel group known by the Spanish acronym FARC.

The rebels are a Marxist-inspired insurgency that has been trying to topple the Colombian government for more than four decades.

Betancourt, who was seized on the campaign trail six years ago, appeared thin but surprisingly healthy as she strode down the stairs of a military plane and held her mother in a long embrace. She said she still aspires to the presidency.

"I never expected to get out of there alive," said Betancourt, 46.

"God, this is a miracle. Such a perfect operation is unprecedented," she said.

Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said military intelligence agents infiltrated the guerrilla ranks and led the local commander in charge of the hostages, Cesar, to believe they were going to take them by helicopter to Alfonso Cano, the guerrillas' supreme leader.

The hostages, who had been divided in three groups, were taken to a rallying point where two helicopters piloted by Colombian military agents were waiting.

The helicopters took off with the hostages. Cesar and one other rebel were captured during the flight, Santos said.

Betancourt said her hands and feet were bound on the way to the helicopters, and that only when the choppers had taken off did military crew members reveal their identity.

The rebel captors who had dropped off the hostages retreated into the jungle.

The United States was involved in the planning of the operation and provided "specific support," the White House said. But officials there would not describe the nature of that support. One American official who was briefed on the operation but insisted on anonymity confirmed that intelligence support to Colombia for the mission, but would not provide any details.

Stansell's family had not heard from him since he was taken hostage but had seen a few "proof-of-life" videos, one taken by a journalist a few years ago.

Every week they sent letters and called a Colombian radio station to leave messages that they believed reached Stansell in captivity.

"We just sent him a letter last week," Coady said. Coady and her children moved to Sarasota about three years ago to be closer to Stansell's parents.

The last time the Stansell children saw their father, they were living in Georgia with his fiancee. Stansell would work for two weeks in Colombia and return to Georgia for two weeks to be with his family.

The night before Valentine's Day in 2003, Kyle and Lauren were baking cookies when their father's fiancee walked into the kitchen and broke the news about the plane crash.

"We didn't know for a day or two they had been taken hostage," said Lauren, now studying to be a dental hygienist like her mother.

Betancourt was abducted in February 2002 as she was running for president. France in particular has made her captivity a national cause, as she holds dual French and Colombian citizenship.

Information from The Associated Press and The New York Times was used in this report.

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