7 Oil Workers Freed in Ecuador for $13 Million

Seven foreign oil workers--including four Americans--kidnapped in October in Ecuador’s petroleum-rich northeastern jungle were freed Thursday. An oil industry source said a $13-million ransom was paid.

Ecuador’s Defense Ministry said the men, who included a Chilean, an Argentine and a New Zealander, were released before noon and picked up by a military patrol. President Gustavo Noboa’s office said they were “in good condition.”

The men arrived at the airport in Quito, the capital, before nightfall and were rushed to a downtown hotel under tight security.

News of their release was announced in Washington by Rear Adm. Craig Quigley, the top Pentagon spokesman.

Ecuadorean television said the men were released near Santa Rosa de Cascales, a few miles from the border with Colombia and 90 miles east of Quito.

An Ecuadorean military intelligence officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the men were picked up by a military patrol and taken to Lago Agrio, 110 miles northeast of Quito. He said they were treated for exhaustion, cuts and bruises. They had trekked a long distance through the jungle to a prearranged rendezvous point for their release, the officer said.

Ten foreign oil workers were kidnapped Oct. 12 from an oil camp in the Pompeya jungle region. Two French captives escaped a few days later. The body of kidnapping victim Ronald Clay Sander, 54, an employee of Oklahoma-based Helmerich & Payne Inc., was found on a jungle road Jan. 31.

Sander, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., had been shot five times in the back.

Police sources said negotiators settled on a $13-million ransom in mid-February, just before the kidnappers’ deadline to kill a second captive.

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

The others are Dennis Corrin of New Zealand, an Erickson employee; German Scholz of Chile, a consultant for energy giant Repsol-YPF; and Juan Rodriguez of Argentina, an employee of a subsidiary for Schlumberger Ltd., a New York-based oil field services company.