Colombia Rebels Demand $6 Million for 2 Americans
Leftist rebels who kidnaped two American engineers from a remote oil camp earlier this week are demanding a $6-million ransom for their release, the Defense Ministry reported today.
The ministry’s press office identified the hostages only as Edward Scholl and Jack Gilles.
The U.S. Embassy did not immediately comment on the situation, nor did Occidental Petroleum and Bechtel International Co., the companies which the Defense Ministry said the two men work for.
The press office said that on Tuesday about 100 heavily armed guerrillas of the Popular Liberation Army attacked the camp in Tibu, in the oil-producing area near the Venezuelan border, about 300 miles northeast of Bogota.
No one was harmed during in the attack, according to official reports.
The guerrillas kidnaped three American engineers--Scholl, Gilles and John Gettis--and a Colombian, Jose Manuel Sanchez, said a spokesman at the press office.
The rebels damaged a helicopter and stole the equivalent of $6,200 in pesos, several radio sets, drugs, food and other supplies.
Later they sent Gettis and Sanchez back with a letter demanding ransoms of $4 million from Occidental and $2 million from Bechtel, he said, one of the highest demands ever made by Colombian kidnapers.
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