Distributed by: INFORMACION NEWS AGENCY Nelson Calder�n - Editor in Chief P.O. Box 4432 Clifton, NJ 07012-0996 Fax: (201) 692-1273 Off: (201) 692-1891 - Beeper: (800) 413-6449 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <A HREF="http://welcome.to/NelsonCalderon">WWW.WELCOME.TO./INFORMACION.NEWS </A> or: http://www.welcome.to/NelsonCalderon Visit: http://www.welcome.to/cuba -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= Las opiniones expresadas por nuestros articulistas y colaboradores reflejan la opini�n de su autor y no necesariamente los de la gerencia de INFORMACION NEWS AGENCY. ================================= INFORMACION NEWS AGENCY does not claim the exclusivity of its collaborators and authorizes the reproduction of this informative material and its publication and/or its massive distribution as long as the author and the source are recognized. INFORMACION NEWS AGENCY no reclama la exclusividad de sus colaboradores y autoriza la reproducci�n de este material informativo, y su publicaci�n y/o distribuci�n masiva siempre que se reconozca al autor y la fuente. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-= SARAVENA, Colombia (AP) -- The three Americans -- two Indian activists and a young environmentalist -- came to Colombia to help an indigenous group that has fought to prevent oil drilling on its native lands in jungles near the Venezuelan border. After a week with the U'wa people, they were kidnapped by gunmen in civilian clothing. Now they are dead, victims of a slaying with potentially explosive political dimensions. Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, was a member of the Menominee nation of Wisconsin who had worked on behalf of native peoples since she was a teen-ager. Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, was director of Hawaii-based Pacific Cultural Conservancy International. Terence Freitas, 24, had worked extensively with the U'wa and organized the trip. Washinawatok had worked on behalf of native peoples around the world, including in Guatemala and El Salvador, and was married to a Palestinian she met in Cuba. Their bodies were found bound and blindfolded Thursday in a field just across the Arauca river in Venezuela by a farmer who heard a volley of gunshots and went to investigate. All three had been shot in the face and chest. Venezuelan authorities said the women were each shot at least four times, while Freitas was hit six times. In Washington, the State Department blamed the ``cold-blooded murder'' on the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the country's oldest and largest rebel band. The rebels have never claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, though U'wa tribesmen who were accompanying the three Americans when they were seized on their way to Saravena's airport Feb. 25 blamed FARC guerrillas. If the FARC was responsible, the killings would be a serious blow to the international image the group has tried to cultivate as a hero of Colombia's downtrodden peasants. They could also sour any U.S. appetite for working with the FARC in the rebels' incipient peace dialogue with Colombia's government, against which the guerrillas have been fighting for 35 years, and strengthen arguments for increasing assistance to Colombia's military. The Colombian army has since 1996 been steadily losing ground to the FARC, which has grown rich off ``taxes'' on coca cultivation and its chemical transformation into cocaine. Rebels now control some 40 percent of the countryside, where right-wing paramilitary gunmen also roam freely. The American activists, in their mission to help the 8,000-strong U'wa nation organize schools on its reservation, had ignored State Department warnings for U.S. citizens to stay away from rural Colombia. And their visit also coincided with a Feb. 19 battle in Arauquita, just across the Arauca river from where their bodies were found, in which Colombia's army said it killed some 60 rebels. Apesanahkwat speculated the killings might have been retaliation. Colombia has the world's highest kidnapping rate. Ransoms are a major revenue source for leftist rebels, who dominate the region where the Americans were seized and who claim they only abduct the wealthy. Julie Freitas said in Los Angeles that she was grateful that her son's ``life was so full of passion and that he fought to help people and did what he believed in.'' Local U'wa representative Roberto Afanador was with the three when they were kidnapped and was incensed at the FARC, who he said frequently enters the tribe's 235-square-mile reserve without permission. Tribal leaders say the FARC also tries to extort from the U'wa. Afanador said the activists had intended to continue after they left Colombia by lobbying foreign oil companies to stop drilling in the region.
