Colombian rebel leader’s trial begins

WASHINGTON – The government opened its case in the trial of a top Latin American rebel leader, asserting Monday that Ricardo Palmera joined a plot to take three Americans hostage after their U.S. plane crashed in Colombia.

With tearful family members of the hostages sitting nearby, Justice Department attorney John Crabb argued that Palmera – better known by his nom de guerre Simon Trinidad – and his leftist group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), sought to use the Americans as bargaining chips to extract concessions from the U.S.-backed Colombian government.

“We’ll trade you hostages – including three Americans – for all FARC prisoners in jail. That was Simon Trinidad’s offer,” Crabb said.

“He admitted he was a member of FARC, he admitted FARC takes hostages,” he said. “That man Simon Trinidad tried to use them as get-out-of-jail cards for FARC.”

Palmera’s defense countered that there was little evidence tying Palmera directly to the hostage-taking after the plane carrying the U.S. military contractors encountered engine trouble in 2003 and crashed.

Chief U.S. District Judge Thomas F. Hogan swore in a panel of 15 jurors and alternates in the case of Palmera, who is considered the most senior FARC member captured.

The jury will decide the fate of Palmera in a three-year-old kidnapping case in which the three Americans are believed to be held by guerrillas in the thick jungles of southeastern Colombia.

Palmera, 56, was extradited in late 2004 after his capture in Ecuador. He is charged with providing material support to a terrorist group and hostage-taking in connection with the February 2003 downing of a small U.S. airplane over a FARC stronghold.

FARC is demanding that the Colombian government release all of the group’s imprisoned comrades, including Palmera, in exchange for the release of 62 hostages. The hostages include the three Americans on the plane – Thomas Howes, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalves – who authorities say were defense contractors involved in an intelligence-collecting mission.

Palmera is also charged in the killings of two others on the plane, U.S. pilot Thomas Janis and Sgt. Luis Alcides Cruz, a Colombian soldier, who were found near the crash site apparently shot to death.

The trial is the latest evidence of a toughened U.S. stance against FARC, which the U.S. government considers a terrorist organization.

If convicted, Palmera could face 30 years in prison, the maximum allowed under the extradition treaty between Colombia and the United States.