Ransom Paid in Ecuador Kidnap, Release Awaited
QUITO, Ecuador, Feb 28 (Reuters) - Employers of seven foreign oil workers held hostage by an unidentified armed group in Ecuador's Amazon jungle have paid a ransom and are awaiting their release, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.
The payment, made last week and estimated by local media at $13 million, was made after captive U.S. citizen Ron Sander was shot and killed earlier this year when the employers failed to meet a ransom demand.
"The payment was made," the police spokesman told Reuters on Wednesday. Media reports said the money was flown in by helicopter in denominations of $100 bills at the kidnappers' request.
Seven oil workers -- four U.S. citizens, a Chilean, a New Zealander and an Argentine -- have remained captive since October, when they were kidnapped by an unidentified armed group with Sander and two other colleagues.
Two Frenchmen taken hostage escaped a few days after the kidnapping.
According to a military source, the armed forces is no longer involved in the negotiations. Instead, they are being carried out by a security firm contracted by the hostages' employers that include Oklahoma-based drilling firm Helmerich & Payne Inc., U.S. oil field services group Schlumberger Ltd. and Oregon-based Erickson Air Crane.
The companies were contracted by Spanish-Argentine oil group Repsol YPF to work on an Amazon oil field where the kidnapping occurred.
Ecuadoreans have been anxiously awaiting the hostages' freedom, with media reports announcing their imminent freedom daily.
"It is confirmed they have not yet been freed," Interior Minister Juan Manrique told reporters on Wednesday, in response to media speculation the hostages had already been released.
"As soon as we have the news, the government will inform the nation," he said.
It is unclear who is behind the kidnapping.
Seven men accused of delivering food and supplies to the kidnappers to help them sustain their captives during the last few months were detained two weeks ago and are currently in police custody.
"We're waiting for this all to be over. It has been very painful, very sad, and we want it to end," Pablo Scholtz, son of Chilean hostage German Scholtz, said on Ecuavisa television late Tuesday.