Ecuador Hostages

[Cyclic Hotline]

I'm not sure if this means that the situation is close to being resolved or not. The way the article reads though, it looks like something positive may be about to occur.

Let's hope so. These guys need to get home to their families and their lives. There are a lot of people thinking about them every day.

Ecuador Kidnappers Agree To Ransom

By GONZALO SOLANO, Associated Press Writer

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Kidnappers who murdered a U.S. oil worker last month agreed to a ransom offer shortly before a deadline to kill another captive, Ecuador's military chief said Wednesday. Four of their seven hostages are American.

"The criminal group said it would not execute anyone else and I understand they have reached some economic arrangement,'' said Vice Adm. Miguel Saona, adding that he did not know details of the ransom plan.

The body of kidnap victim Ronald Sander, 54, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., was found in the jungle Jan. 31. He had been shot five times in the back and was covered in a white sheet scrawled with the words in Spanish: "I am a gringo. For non-payment of ransom. HP company.''

Sander, a technician with Tulsa, Okla.-based Helmerich & Payne Inc., was seized from oil camps in October in the El Coca jungle region, some 150 miles east of Quito. Nine others were seized - four other Americans, a Chilean, an Argentine, a New Zealander and two Frenchmen. The two Frenchmen escaped,

Unconfirmed media reports here said that the kidnappers had warned they would kill another of the hostages if ransom was not paid by Feb. 15.

"With relation to the deadline of today or tomorrow to execute a second captive, I have information that yesterday negotiations were restarted,'' said Saona, who is head of Ecuador's military Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The information that we have about this is not very broad because all negotiations are being conducted between the criminal group and the embassies or companies that employee the captives,'' Saona said.

Sources close to the investigation said the kidnappers had been refusing to budge from an initial demand of $80 million.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. Embassy declined to confirm or deny the report. "We believe it inappropriate to comment about the work of the companies,'' she said. "The policy of the United States is well known: We are against negotiating in these cases.''

The American captives have been identified as David Bradley, of Casper, Wyo., an oil field platform foreman for Helmerich & Payne; and Arnold Alford, Steve Derry and Jason Weber, all employees of the Oregon-based helicopter company Erickson Air-Crane Co., and residents of Gold Hill, Ore.

Helmerich & Payne said in a written statement that, "Based on recent events, the company has greater optimism regarding the safe return of our co-worker, David Bradley, and the other hostages presently held captive.''

Paul Derry, a truck driver and 39-year-old brother of Steve Derry, said from his home in LaGrande, Ore., that he had not heard anything directly from Erickson Air Crane Co. or any of his family members.

"I think it's great,'' he said. "You know, it's been a long time coming.''

Erickson Air Crane said Wednesday it would "neither confirm nor deny these, or any other, reports until all of the hostages are safely home with their families.''

Authorities believe the kidnappers are members of the same criminal gang that held seven Canadians and an American for ransom for 100 days in late 1999. Alberta-based United Pipeline Systems has never confirmed reports that it paid $3.5 million for the release of its employees.

"We have received information in bits and pieces from the negotiators, but the information that we have at hand makes us think that it is a criminal group with approximately 25 people,'' Saona said.

Oil industry and military sources have said the kidnappers were believed responsible for deadly dynamite attacks in December against Ecuador's main oil pipeline

[Cyclic Hotline]

More positive news on this story - let's hope that this is the end of this!

Police: Kidnappers Agree to Release Hostages in Exchange for $13 Million Ransom

LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador (AP) -- Kidnappers holding seven foreign oil workers hostage -- including four Americans -- agreed to free them in exchange for $13 million ransom, police sources revealed Friday.

Oil company negotiators were insisting that the kidnappers first produce proof that the captives were alive and well, police sources said on condition of anonymity. The release process could take several days, they said.

The ransom deal, far less than the kidnappers' initial demand of $80 million, averts a second killing in the four-month-long hostage crisis in the oil-rich Amazon region near a river that separates Ecuador and Colombia.

Two weeks ago, the kidnappers fatally shot Ronald Sander, 54, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., five times in the back to pressure his company to pay up. They threatened to kill another hostage if the ransom wasn't paid by Feb. 15.

On Wednesday, the head of Ecuador's military, Vice Adm. Miguel Saona, announced that the kidnappers had agreed to an unspecified ransom before the deadline.

The kidnappers seized Sander and nine others -- including a Chilean, an Argentine and a New Zealander -- Oct. 12 from oil camps 37 miles south of Lago Agrio. They were thought to be holed up in a jungle area between the Conejo and Bermeja rivers, northwest of the town. Two Frenchmen who were kidnapped managed to escape.

Sander, a technician with Tulsa, Okla.-based Helmerich & Payne Inc., was found Jan. 31 on a jungle road, covered in a white sheet scrawled with the words in Spanish: "I am a gringo. For nonpayment of ransom. HP company."

About 150 elite police troopers in black and gray camouflage uniforms and bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles, landed in this raw jungle town Wednesday and were deployed into the dense jungle only a few miles from the Colombian border.

Lago Agrio, established 30 years ago as a main supply center for Ecuadorean oil workers as well as for settlers, is a steamy jungle outpost of farm supply outlets, hardware stores and bars that caters to Colombians who cross the border rolling in money from the cocaine trade.

A sense of lawlessness pervades Lago Agrio, and it is not uncommon to see settlers from the surrounding jungle selling animal skins. Monkeys are more commonly kept as pets than dogs.

The kidnap gang -- described as a disciplined group armed with automatic weapons, dressed in military fatigues and apparently organized in a paramilitary structure -- is believed to be made up of some 25 Ecuadorean, Colombian and possibly Peruvian members.

Authorities here have speculated that the Colombians in the group could be deserters from the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, that country's largest guerrilla organization, or one of its right-wing paramilitary rivals.

Colombian guerillas and the paramilitary fighters have been waging an increasingly pitched conflict on the Colombian side of the border for control of vast fields of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine.

The kidnappers are believed to be the same criminal gang that held seven Canadians and an American for ransom in late 1999. They were freed unharmed after 100 days in captivity. Alberta-based United Pipeline Systems has never confirmed reports that it paid $3.5 million for their release.

The negotiators want proof that these hostages are alive and in good condition, police said.

The American captives have been identified as David Bradley, of Casper, Wyo., an oil field platform foreman for Helmerich & Payne; and Arnold Alford, Steve Derry and Jason Weber, all employees of the Oregon-based helicopter company Erickson Air-Crane Co. and residents of Gold Hill, Ore.

Some 40 officials from Helmerich & Payne and the FBI have moved into hotels in Lago Agrio, which lies 110 miles northeast of the capital, Quito.

Ecuadorean and U.S. officials have ruled out any political motivation on the part of the kidnappers, who they describe as a ruthless criminal band driven by greed.

Seven people suspected of supplying the gang with food and provisions have been detained over the past 10 days, police said.

[Pac Rotors]

According to the national newspaper here in NZ the insurance companies for Erickson Aircrane are agreeing to the demands of the kidnappers and will be paying the ransom soon. Apparently the recent shooting of one of the workers put the wind underneath them real fast.

About time Erickson pulled their finger out and started looking after their staff http://www.pprune.org/ubb/NonCGI/tongue.gif

PR

[Larry]

All Erickson needs to do is sell LA City Fire Dept a S-64F for the quoted 13 million
(LA Citys been talking about buying one...just talking !!)and then meet the Kidnappers at a gas station somewhere in Equador and hand over the cash.

Seriously...how the heck do they actually hand over the money ?

[Cyclic Hotline]

Medford Mail Tribune
Red Cross to deliver ransom
By Melissa Martin

GOLD HILL — The International Red Cross will assist in the exchange when Erickson Air-Crane and the oil companies pay the ransom for the release of seven employees this weekend, according to sources in Ecuador.

Kidnappers demanded the participation of the relief organization, El Comercio newspaper reported in today’s editions.

It’s unknown when the three Gold Hill men among the hostages will return to the Rogue Valley.

Meanwhile, waiting quietly and prayerfully, friends of the hostages created a Web site (soshostages.com) Thursday to provide information about the plight of Arnold Alford, 41, Steve Derry, 40, and Jason Weber, 29, who are helicopter mechanics for Erickson Air-Crane.

"We want to continue to awaken Americans and the world to what’s going on," said Shayne Maxwell, Web site designer, Gold Hill real estate agent and friend of the Derry family.

Rumors that the hostages were en route to the United States circulated Thursday among some media members gathering in Southern Oregon to await their return. Several Portland television stations brought satellite trucks to the Rogue Valley to cover the hostage story and The New York Times sent a reporter based in Seattle. ABC’s "20-20" program inquired from New York about the crisis.

But the hostages remained in Ecuador Thursday, a state department spokesman said.

"The most important thing is that they get home," said Christopher Lamora, spokesman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs of the Department of State. "We’re keeping our fingers crossed."

A U.S. Embassy spokeswoman in Quito, Ecuador, said she has read news accounts about the $11 million settlement that Erickson Air-Crane and two other companies reportedly reached with the kidnappers. But she could neither confirm nor deny the reports.

"We continue to work closely with the government of Ecuador, the oil companies, with the family of the American hostages, as well as the governments of the other hostages’ countries, to resolve this," said Susan Crystal, cultural attaché.

The kidnappers’ demand that the International Red Cross assist in the exchange of money for men would not be an unusual role for the humanitarian organization, a local spokeswoman said. The Red Cross, which provides relief to victims of natural disasters, hunger, poverty and violence around the world, would be the neutral party.

"The Red Cross can go in to make sure the hostages are being treated fairly and being fed," said Marge Jameson, executive director of the Rogue Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross. "During the war in Bosnia, when we had soldiers that were captured, the Red Cross went in to make sure they were being treated fairly and to take messages in and out."

It’s unknown whether Red Cross workers have been involved with the hostage crisis that began Oct. 12 when armed gunmen captured 10 foreigners working in an oil field in Ecuador near the Colombia border. Two Frenchmen escaped soon after and on Jan. 31, kidnappers killed American Ronald Sanders. Besides Derry, Weber and Alford, the hostages include Erickson Air-Crane employee Dennis Corrin of New Zealand, an Argentine and a Chilean. Erickson Air-Crane is a Central Point-based company that builds and operates heavy-lift helicopters.

News of the negotiations has been scarce and difficult to obtain, according to Vice Adm. Miguel Saona, chief of the high military command in Ecuador. He told Reuters news service, "Information has come to us out of an eye dropper."

[Cyclic Hotline]

From the Medford Mail Tribune...

Ransom paid; release likely soon

Negotiators get proof that captives in Ecuador remain alive

By Melissa Martin

A helicopter delivered an undisclosed amount of ransom money to the beach of an Amazon river Thursday to set in motion the release of three Gold Hill men being held hostage in Ecuador, according to a Quito newspaper.

The three, along with four other hostages, are expected to be released within five days, El Comercio newspaper reported Friday. The U.S. State Department confirmed that payment had been made to the kidnappers, according to U.S. Congressman Greg Walden, R-Hood River.

"In past kidnapping cases in this region, days and even weeks have passed between receipt of payment and release of the hostages," Walden said.

According to the Friday edition of El Comercio: "A source close to the negotiations says the ransom was paid on a beach of the River Bermejo, near the border with Colombia.

However, it was not stated who delivered the money or who received it."

The paper said the source also did not know the amount of money paid, although other reports put it at $13 million.

Negotiators received a "proof of life" to guarantee that the hostages are alive, according to the El Comercio story.

"A series of personal questions was sent for each hostage, and it appears they answered exactly," the story reported.

Jimmie Gimmeson, the mother of kidnapping victim David Bradley, said she had also received confirmation that a ransom had been paid from her son’s employer, Tulsa, Okla., oil company Helmerich & Payne Inc., after the kidnappers sent back answers to questions she had provided that only her son could know.

"All they said was they had done their part," Gimmeson said of Helmerich & Payne. "We’re expecting delivery (of the freed hostages) in five days."

The seven hostages include Gold Hill residents Arnold Alford, 41, Steve Derry, 40, and Jason Weber, 29, and New Zealand pilot Dennis Corrin, 52, employees of the Central Point-based helicopter firm Erickson Air-Crane. The captives also include another American, an Argentine and a Chilean employed by oil companies, one based in Tulsa and one in Spain.

Erickson Air-Crane officials have routinely declined to comment, saying they feared media reports could jeopardize the negotiations.

The kidnappers initially demanded $80 million, or $8 million for each of the 10 foreign oil workers. The ransom demand later was dropped to $18 million and negotiators offered $11 million, according to El Comercio.

About 40 armed men abducted the oil workers Oct. 12 from a Repsol-YPF (a Spanish oil exploration company) oil camp in Pompeya in Orellana Province. Two Frenchmen escaped shortly after they were captured.

The body of kidnap victim Ronald Sander, 54, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., was found in the jungle Jan. 31. An employee of Helmerich & Payne, he had been shot five times in the back and was covered in a white sheet scrawled with the words in Spanish: "I am a gringo. For nonpayment of ransom. HP company."

The Bermejo River, where the money was delivered, runs through Casacales, the county seat, of the Sucumbios Province in northeast Ecuador near Colombia. It is three to four hours driving time from Quito.

Kidnappers requested the cash be bundled in small denominations, such as $100 bills. It was delivered by helicopter, the only way to reach the remote river beach, according to El Comercio.

"Now it is hoped that within a maximum of five days, the seven hostages will be released, although they remain under the abductors’ power,’’ El Comercio reported. "There was no identity of the kidnappers."

On Feb. 14, the head of Ecuador’s military, Vice Adm. Miguel Saona, announced that the kidnappers had agreed to an unspecified ransom hours before a deadline to kill another captive.

[Cyclic Hotline]

Second Story from the Oregonian.

Ransom paid and hostages' families must sit tight, wait

It may be days or weeks before the seven can come home, but welcomes are being prepared

Saturday, February 24, 2001
By Beth Quinn, Correspondent, The Oregonian

The full payment of a $13 million ransom to free seven oil workers, including three Gold Hill men, held hostage in Ecuador since October has left their families waiting by the phone for word their loved ones are safe.

"We were told, 'Don't go anywhere. Be by the phone. Be available,' " said Jimmie Gimmeson, of Casper, Wyo., mother of hostage David Bradley, 41, an oil field platform foreman for Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne oil company. "The first call was sometime (Thursday) and then they called later in the day and just said that their portion was completed. And today (Friday) we're just trying to decide how best to be ready so when they are released we can get them home as quickly as possible."

The other six captives are Steve Derry, 41, Arnold Alford, 41, and Jason Weber, 29, all of Gold Hill, and Dennis Corrin, 52, of New Zealand, all employees of Central Point-based Erickson Air-Crane; and German Shultz of Chile and Juan Rodriguez, of Argentina, both consultants for New York City-based Schlumberger, an oil field services company. The families of the Gold Hill men have refused to talk to the media until their relatives are back on United States soil.

In its Saturday edition, the Quito, Ecuador, daily newspaper Diario El Comercio quoted an unnamed military source who said the $13 million ransom was delivered by helicopter to a beach on the Bermeja River near the Colombian border Thursday, with the payment made up of out-of-sequence $100 bills in six or seven bags. The newspaper reported that seven hostages, whose employers received answers to "proof of life" questions before paying the ransom, are expected to be released to representatives of the Red Cross within the next few days.

"I had a question about something he did in high school. It was kind of a joke between us," Gimmeson said. "They said they answered quickly with no hesitation."

In Washington, D.C., Rep. Greg Walden said Friday that the U.S. State Department confirmed the payment of the ransom, but he cautioned that the hostages' release may take time.

"In past kidnapping cases in this region, days and even weeks have passed between receipt of the payment and release of the hostages," Walden said.

But El Comercio and other news organizations in Ecuador speculated that the release might come in the next four days during the Roman Catholic nation's pre-Lent celebration of carnival, the annual merrymaking that precedes the 40 days of Lenten austerity that begin on Ash Wednesday Feb. 28.

In addition to the distraction of the carnival festivities, the jungle provinces where Ecuadorean officials think the hostages are being held have been gripped by civil unrest since Wednesday, when protesters seeking paved roads and better electric service seized oil wells in the jungle and took to the streets in the towns, shutting down businesses, halting traffic and closing schools.

By Thursday, Victor Cabadiana, a spokesman for city hall in Lago Agrio -- the town where hostage negotiators are now headquartered -- told Reuters, "Vehicles, as well as commerce, have been halted 100 percent."

Payment of the ransom came a little more than three weeks after the Jan. 31 death of hostage Ron Sander, 54, of Sunrise Beach, Mo. , a Helmerich & Payne employee whose bullet-riddled body was found near Lago Agrio covered with a sheet emblazoned in Spanish: "For nonpayment of ransom."

In the days that followed, Gimmeson and the brothers and friends of Erickson employee Steve Derry broke their silence about the kidnapping, using interviews with newspapers and television stations, a noon-till-dusk vigil at Erickson Air-Crane and a Web site to press for payment of a ransom, even the $80 million kidnappers initially demanded.

Judging from the experience of seven Canadian oil workers held hostage by the same criminal gang for 100 days in 1999, the captives won't immediately head home after they are freed. Instead, they will likely be hospitalized for medical evaluation and then debriefed by police and military officials before being reunited with their families in their homelands.

But when they finally arrive, the captives will find their home towns eager to turn out in celebration.

"Time to start checking that all the banners are made, and call the Boy Scouts and see about a parade," said Marilou Crowell, a friend of Steve Derry's. "It's the least that we can do."

[Pac Rotors]

Wonder if they have any assurances that they will be released once the money has been paid.

[Cyclic Hotline]

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.

[Cyclic Hotline]

Let's hope this story is true and these guy's can all get home to their families.

Thursday March 1 1:15 PM EST

Foreign Hostages Freed in Ecuador's Amazon -Source

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Seven foreign oil workers held hostage in Ecuador's Amazon jungle region since October 2000 by an unidentified armed group were freed on Thursday, a source close to the hostages' employers told Reuters.

Four U.S. citizens, a New Zealander, an Argentine and a Chilean, were released near Lago Agrio, 190 miles (300 km) east of Quito near the Colombian border, and had made contact with their employers, the source said. But he could not confirm whether they had been picked up.

"They are in contact with them (their employers)," the source said on condition of anonymity. The release came a week after the hostages' employers paid a $13 million ransom, sources close to the investigation said.

The payment was made three weeks after U.S. citizen Ron Sander was shot and killed when the companies, including Helmerich & Payne, Erickson Air Crane and Schlumberger Ltd., failed to meet an earlier ransom demand.

The unidentified armed group abducted 10 foreign workers from a Repsol-YPF oil field in Ecuador's central Amazon region in October 2000. Two helicopter pilots, both French, escaped a few days later.

The kidnapping was the second in Ecuador in a year in the crude-rich jungle that borders Colombia's coca-growing Putumayo region. In 1999 12 Canadian oil workers were abducted and released three months later unharmed.

[Cyclic Hotline]

This is the confirmation that so many family members and colleagues have been waiting for!

With the release of these hostages, we must once again share condolences with the family of Ron Sander, who was murdered by these individuals. I am sure the happiness of the returning hostages will be tempered by the memory of their compatriot who did not come home.

Pentagon Official Says Oil Workers Have Been Released

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign oil workers kidnapped last fall in Ecuador's northeast jungle have been freed, a Pentagon official said Thursday.

Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, spokesman for Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, said, "The hostages have been released."

Quigley gave no details. He did not say if all seven captives had been released. Four of the seven are Americans.

The spokesman did not indicate when the hostages were freed or their conditions.

Besides the four Americans, an Argentine, Chilean and New Zealander were being held.

Ten foreign oil workers were kidnapped Oct. 12 from an oil camp in the El Coca jungle region, near the border with Colombia, some 150 miles east of Ecuador's capital, Quito. Two French captives escaped a few days later.

The body of kidnap victim Ronald Sander, 54, an employee of Tulsa, Okla., oil company Helmerich & Payne, Inc., was found on a jungle road Jan. 31.

Sander, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., had been shot five times in the back and was covered in a white sheet scrawled with the words in Spanish: "I am a gringo. For nonpayment of ransom. HP company."

Military and oil industry sources said the killing came after the kidnappers refused to budge from an $80 million ransom demand.

The American captives have been identified as Bradley of Casper, Wyo., and Arnold Alford, Steve Derry and Jason Weber of Gold Hill, Ore., all employees of Erickson Air-Crane, a helicopter company.

Authorities believe the kidnappers are members of the same criminal gang that held seven Canadians and an American for ransom for 100 days in 1999.

[Pac Rotors]

Great news for the captives. Somehow I doubt they will be real keep to keep on working in South America.

[Cyclic Hotline]

Oil Workers Freed in Ecuador

By JOSE VELASQUEZ, Associated Press Writer

QUITO, Ecuador (AP) - Forced to walk for 141 days through dense jungle in Ecuador, seven foreign oil workers - including four Americans - were recovering in a hotel Friday after their release for a reported $13 million ransom.

Exhausted, cut and bruised, the workers were picked up by a military patrol at a prearranged rendezvous point Thursday, according to military and oil industry sources. Authorities vowed to track down their captors.

The kidnappers killed Ronald Sander, 54, of Sunrise Beach, Mo. during the four-month abduction. Sander was an employee of Helmerich & Payne, Inc., an oil exploration company based in Tulsa, Okla.

The Americans freed Thursday were identified as David Bradley, another Helmerich & Payne employee from Casper, Wyo.; and Arnold Alford, Steve Derry and Jason Weber of Gold Hill, Ore., all employees of Erickson Air-Crane, a helicopter company.

Unidentified gunmen abducted 10 men - five Americans, two Frenchmen, a Chilean, an Argentinian and a New Zealander - on Oct. 12 from an oil field in the Pompeya jungle region, about 45 miles south of the border with Colombia.

They hijacked a helicopter and forced the pilot to fly them deep into the jungle, where they began months of hiking.

"We were walking the entire time, day and night, rain or shine,'' German Scholz, a Chilean consultant for European energy giant Repsol-YPF, told Channel 10 television Thursday shortly after being freed.

Two Frenchmen escaped a few days after the kidnapping, and Scholz said the kidnappers duped their captives into thinking Sander was released as part of a ransom deal.

"On January 24, the day that we were separated from him, we shook hands and said goodbye,'' he recalled. "The promise was that they were freeing Ron because that was the deal they had agreed to with the oil companies.''

A week later, Sander was found on a jungle road Jan. 31, shot five times in the back and covered in a white sheet scrawled with the words in Spanish: "I am a gringo. For nonpayment of ransom. HP company.''

The kidnappers who had taken Sander away rejoined the group 12 days later and told the remaining captives that he was in Quito, Ecuador's capital.

"We were very happy, and now we find out that they killed him,'' Scholz said.

Scholz said the kidnappers had been debating whether to take away him or Sander. They finally settled on Sander because they said the Americans had been asking for him.

Captive Juan Rodriguez of Argentina described the four months as "terrible'' and said the kidnap victims were shackled in chains during the night.

"One time they thought that I was planning to escape and they put chains on me. I was chained for four complete days,'' Rodriguez, an employee of a subsidiary for Schlumberger Ltd., a New York-based oil field services company, told Channel 10.

The other hostage was Dennis Corrin of New Zealand, an Erickson employee.

In Gold Hill, Ore., friends and families of the three helicopter company employees said they were relieved.

"You think about (the kidnappers) going back on their word,'' said Paul Derry, brother of helicopter mechanic Steve Derry. "They've got their money, you know. They could just do away with them. That's been a pretty heavy worry.''

After their release, the men were given food, baths and spare military fatigues to wear at the jungle outpost of Lago Agrio. They were then flown to Quito, where they were staying in a downtown hotel.

The U.S. Embassy in Quito said Thursday it would continue working with Ecuadorean authorities to catch the kidnappers. "We will not consider this case closed until the guilty parties are brought before justice,'' a U.S. Embassy statement said.

The kidnapping gang is believed to be made up of at least 25 people, officials said. They used automatic weapons, dressed in military fatigues and were organized like a paramilitary group.

Diplomatic officials and police say the group started operating several years ago and is composed mainly of Colombian deserters from some rebel insurgency, possibly the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, that country's largest guerrilla group.

Local newspaper and television reports have speculated that the kidnappers are may also be linked to Colombia's smaller leftist rebel group, the National Liberation Army.

Police have also said the abductors were part of a group that is treating kidnapping as an "industry.''

[Pac Rotors]

They had a photo of Dennis Corrin on the front page of the NZ Herald this morning and he looked like Robinson Crusoe. He called his mum and dad as soon as he could and said they live on anything they could find and the odd monkey.

Glad they are all out now and on their way back to their loved ones.

:) :)

[sprocket]

Here is the link to The NZ Herald report. Looks like he's been to hell and back.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=174808&thesection=news&thesubsection=general

[Cyclic Hotline]

Welcome Home Guys.

Just saw them all on a live press conference on TV. All appear to be well and recovering from their ordeal. Hard to recognise them without their long hair and beards!

Glad that this was resolved.

Again, condolences to the family, friends, colleagues and fellow hostages of Ron Sander. This episode was not without tragedy.