Rebel gets 60 years for hostage-taking

Colombian rebel leader Ricardo Palmera was sentenced to 60 years in prison Monday for helping hold three U.S. contractors hostage as part of a decades-long struggle with the Colombian government.

Palmera was convicted in July of hostage-taking conspiracy. The Justice Department had hoped that the conviction and threat of a lengthy prison sentence would help prod the leftist guerrilla group to release the three hostages, who have been held in jungle prisons since 2003.

Palmera, who is better known by his nom de guerre, Simon Trinidad, is a senior member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. The force of about 12,000 fighters has battled the Colombian government for four decades and the U.S. government considers it a terrorist organization and a drug cartel.

At trial, Palmera admitted serving as a FARC negotiator but said he never saw the Americans or kept them captive himself. He justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic and compared the struggle in Colombia to the U.S. Civil War.

The three hostages — Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell — were civilian Pentagon contractors flying a surveillance mission over the Colombian jungle when their plane crashed in 2003 in a rebel stronghold. They were taken hostage and were most recently seen in late April.

Palmera is also awaiting a second trial on cocaine trafficking charges. The first case ended with a jury deadlocked at 7-5 in favor of acquittal. Jurors did not dispute that the FARC was in the cocaine business but most felt the government could not prove Palmera was part of that enterprise.