12:15 PM
QUITO, Ecuador - An American who was one of 10 foreign oil workers kidnapped and held for ransom in Ecuador's Amazon jungle region last October has been found dead.
US citizen Ron Sanders was held captive for more than three months by an unidentified armed group.
Since October, eight of the 10 workers kidnapped from a field owned by Spanish-Argentine oil giant Repsol-YPF in the area of Pompeya in Ecuador's Amazon jungle had been missing.
They include five US citizens, an Argentine, a Chilean and New Zealander Dennis Corrin. Mr Corrin is an employee of the US-based heavy-lift helicopter specialist Erickson Air-Crane.
Two Frenchmen managed to escape a few days after they were kidnapped when they were sent to drop off the helicopter used in the capture.
According to police, the Mr Sanders' body was found in jungle brush near Lago Agrio, some 16 kilometres south of the Andean nation's border with Colombia, draped in a white blanket reading, "I'm a gringo. for nonpayment of the kidnapping of company HP Pompeya DG."
HP stands for Helmerich & Payne, a Tulsa, Oklahoma-based drilling company that contracted with Repsol-YPF in Ecuador and employed several of the captives, including Sanders, a source close to the investigation said. The company could not be reached for comment.
An oil industry source said the contractors who employed the hostages were negotiating for their freedom, but that the $80 million the kidnappers asked for was too much.
Ecuador's presidential spokesman denied comment on Mr Sanders' death.
In 1999, 12 foreigners working for a Canadian oil firm in Ecuador's Amazon region were kidnapped by an unidentified group and released unharmed three months later. No one claimed responsibility for the kidnapping.
The US Embassy in Quito said in a statement that it "demands the immediate and unconditional freedom of those who still remain kidnapped." The embassy's official policy is not to negotiate with kidnappers.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, "The United States will continue to work closely with the government of Ecuador to gain the release of remaining hostages and bring to justice the perpetrators of this horrible crime."
After the body was found, a radio message was received saying Mr Sanders had been killed and where his body was, the spokesman told a daily briefing.
The United States assumed that the other hostages remained alive, he added.
- REUTERS
Herald Online feature: Kidnapped in Ecuador
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