March 11, 1999
Web posted at: 1:42 a.m. EST (0642 GMT)

In this story: FARC: Guilty guerrillas won't be extradited U.S. vows to ensure justice is done Army says higher-ups also involved Pastrana cancels meeting with Venezuelan leader RELATED STORIES, SITES

SAN VICENTE DEL CAGUAN, Colombia (CNN) -- Colombia's leading Marxist rebel group admitted Wednesday that one of its field commanders and three other guerrillas kidnapped and murdered three U.S. activists in an atrocity that sparked international outrage.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) refused to turn over the killers for extradition to the United States but said it would punish the killers in keeping with its own code of revolutionary justice. It said that those responsible may face firing squads.

Terence Freitas, 24, of Oakland, California; Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, an American Indian resident in New York; and Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, of Hawaii, were kidnapped February 25 in northeast Arauca province. Their bound and bullet-ridden bodies were found dumped just across the river in Venezuela last Thursday.

Raul Reyes, a senior commander of the rebel group known by its Spanish acronym FARC, said the guerrilla commander acted without his superiors' approval.

"Commander Gildardo of the FARC's 10th Front ... found that strangers had entered the U'wa Indian region and did not have authorization from the guerrillas," said Reyes, a member of the FARC's ruling General Secretariat. "He improvised an investigation, captured and executed them without consulting his superiors."

He gave no further explanation for the killings.

"We condemn the abominable assassination of the three Americans," said Reyes, in a stunning confession from insurgents not known for admitting responsibility for atrocities.

Reyes told reporters near this rebel-controlled southern town that the guilty rebel officer, a 6-year veteran squad leader, was in the custody of his comrades in Arauca and would face a rebel war council.

"Firing squads are used in extremely serious cases ... Given the gravity of this case, it's possible that this is the mechanism that will be used," Reyes said.

Reyes, however, ruled out the possibility that the killers would be extradited, saying: "None of our combatants will be handed over to another state."

Washington had blamed the killings on FARC and asked that the suspects be extradited to stand trial in the United States. Wednesday night, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Peter Romero said the United States viewed the rebel admission cautiously.

"We will be following up to be sure that justice is done either in Colombia or in the United States," Romero said.

FARC had previously denied responsibility for the murder- kidnappings, blaming them instead on "enemies" of the country's fledgling peace process -- a reference to rightist paramilitary gangs or disgruntled sectors of the military.

Armed forces commander Gen. Fernando Tapias called the FARC confession "very positive for the peace process," but said that Gildardo was being used as a scapegoat while rebels who really ordered the crime would escape punishment.

In the days after the Americans were murdered, the army released a series of radio intercepts in which the overall commander of the 10th Front, German Briceno, allegedly ordered his men to take the Americans into Venezuela, kill them and burn the corpses.

Briceno is the brother of the FARC's No. 2 commander and top military strategist Jorge Briceno, alias "Mono Jojoy." As head of the FARC's Eastern Bloc division, Mono Jojoy has ultimate command over the region where the Americans were snatched.

Also contrary to the FARC's contention that Freitas, Washinawatok and Gay did not have permission to visit U'wa territory, an international aid worker said Freitas received rebel authorization to carry out his work with the Indians last November.

The North American trio had been in Colombia for about two weeks helping the 8,000-member U'wa nation defend its ancestral lands against plans by U.S. multinational Occidental Petroleum Corp. to explore for oil.

Reyes said killing foreigners was not rebel policy and requested forgiveness from indigenous peoples around the world, the United States, the Colombian people and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The peace process should continue despite the killings, Reyes said.

However, political analysts say the murders could scuttle President Andres Pastrana's peace policy and spark calls for an all-out military offensive against the country's estimated 20,000 rebels, who control up about 40 percent of Colombian territory.

Pastrana was due to hold talks with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on the border of the two countries on Thursday. The killings and their impact on the future of Colombia's fledgling peace process, in which Chavez has offered to act as mediator, had been expected to be the main topic of conversation.

But Foreign Minister Guillermo Fernandez announced the abrupt cancellation of the border meeting late on Wednesday, citing what he referred to vaguely as Chavez's alleged meddling in Colombia's internal affairs.

"Any (foreign) participation in Colombia's peace process should be in strict adherence to the principle of non- intervention," Fernandez told reporters.

At a news conference Wednesday, Chavez had asserted that the Colombian government had recognized the FARC's right to govern in the parts of the country that are under its control.

FARC, Latin America's largest and oldest rebel army, has battled the Colombian government for three decades and has sought to cultivate an image abroad as a hero of Colombia's downtrodden peasants. Since January, it has been involved in on-and-off peace negotiations with Pastrana's government.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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