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WASHINGTON (AFP) — A top leader of Marxist rebels in Colombia was sentenced Monday to 60 years in US prison for his role in the kidnappings of three American citizens.
Ricardo Palmera, who goes by the nom de guerre Simon Trinidad, is a member of the general staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia's largest and oldest guerrilla group.
He was found guilty in July 2006 of conspiracy to kidnap US contract workers Thomas Howe, Keith Stansell and Marc Gonsalvez, who were captured by rebels after their plane that was spraying herbicides over coca plantations crashed in Colombia in 2003.
The three Americans are still being held hostage by FARC rebels in Colombia, along with 42 others, including Ingrid Betancourt -- a former Colombian senator who also holds French citizenship.
A contrite Palmera, addressing the federal court in Washington, called for the release of the American captives "at soon as possible ... to be "reunited with their loved ones."
He urged his fellow revolutionaries to free their captives "as a humanitarian act."
He also called for a political resolution to the decades long conflict between Marxist rebels and the Bogota government.
"I'm certain that this agreement would be an important advance along the road to reconciliation and peace with social justice in Colombia," the rebel commander said.
The Colombian government says that FARC holds some 750 hostages and is engaged in large-scale cocaine trafficking. The rebel group is on both US and the European Union lists of terror groups.
FARC has proposed to exchange 44 of its hostages, including the three Americans and Betancourt, for 500 rebels held in Colombian prisons.
But the rebels and Colombian government have failed to agree on terms to negotiate the swap.
The FARC unilaterally released two female hostages held for more than five years earlier this month, delivering them to the Venezuelan government and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
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