Document text
2nd local man among captives Helicopter used by kidnappers found near Ecuador-Colombia border From staff and wire reports A second Rogue Valley man is among 10 foreign workers missing since their helicopter was seized Thursday by gunmen during a raid in Ecuador on oil fields in the Amazonian jungle. The Mail Tribune confirmed Friday that Arnold Alford of Gold Hill was one of at least five Americans taken hostage by the gunmen. Earlier, the newspaper reported that Steve Derry, also of Gold Hill and a fellow employee of Central Point-based Erickson Air-Crane, was among the missing. A man who answered the phone Friday night at Alford�s Galls Creek home refused to talk about the situation. "You need to talk to Erickson about that," he said. Meanwhile, the secretary for Erickson spokesman Lee Ramage said no new information was available. Congressman Greg Walden (R-Ore.) has said three of the hostages were employees of Erickson, but the company and American diplomats have not identified them yet. "We have nothing else to report," the secretary said. Ramage, the company�s director of operations, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Troops scoured Ecuador�s Amazonian jungles Friday searching for the gunmen and their hostages, who were seized at gunpoint in the El Coca region, 150 miles southeast of the capital, Quito. Soldiers found the helicopter used by the gunmen to flee with their captives, the government said. It was found abandoned near a river that divides Ecuador from Colombia. There was no sign of the captives or the gunmen, who Ecuador�s government said were Colombian rebels who acted in retaliation for Plan Colombia, an anti-drug trafficking initiative backed by $1.3 billion in U.S. aid. Derry, 40, is a graduate of Crater High School in Central Point. Alford, 41, is a 1977 graduate of Siuslaw High School in Florence, according to the Eugene Register-Guard. Members of the Alford family were gathered in Gold Hill on Friday with his wife, Mindy, also a Siuslaw High School graduate, the Register-Guard reported. They have one daughter. "We don�t know anything," Alford�s father, Bill Alford of Florence, told the Register-Guard. "The only thing we know is that someone has him. We just talked to Bogota, and nobody can tell us anything." Walden aide Jeff Eager said the congressman has spoken several times with the State Department, including talking with an assistant secretary of state. Walden wants to "make sure the State Department is doing everything they can to facilitate the return of the Americans as quickly as possible," said Eager. Eager said the State Department and Erickson had asked them not to release any details about the men, including their home towns or their occupations. Reached in Idaho, Leona Derry said she was getting information her son�s status from Erickson, and referred all questions to the company. She said she was "holding up" under the strain. The helicopter "was discovered unoccupied in the sector of La Bermeja" on the Ecuadorean side of the San Miguel river marking the border, a communique from the president�s office said. It said the army was sending a team to retrieve the aircraft. The kidnappers were thought to have fled into Colombia, where in a border region leftist rebels and right-wing paramilitaries have been engaged in a furious battle for control of cocaine production. Meanwhile, foreign oil companies were evacuating their foreign personnel and Ecuadorean executives from Ecuador�s northwest jungle in reaction to the gunmen�s raid, the Ecuavisa television station reported Friday. Some 50 masked assailants slipped into around a half dozen oil camps Wednesday night in the isolated jungle region of El Coca. By dawn Thursday they fled with their captives in the helicopter, stolen from one camp, the military said. It said six Americans, two Frenchmen, a Chilean and an Argentine were seized. "It was a very well prepared operation," an army official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told The Associated Press. "We now know that some 50 insurgents arrived to the target point by car, in canoes and by foot, and met up with absolute precision." "They touched nothing. They stole nothing. They just wanted foreigners," he said. Only around 20 of the assailants escaped in the helicopter, the others presumably fleeing by other means. "We are combing the zone in search of the subversives who stayed behind in national territory," the official said. Ecuador�s armed forces said the kidnappers claimed to be members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, Colombia�s largest guerrilla group. But a FARC spokesman immediately denied any part in the kidnapping. Colombian officials cast doubt on FARC�s involvement Friday, saying they could not confirm the rebels� role or rule it out. Colombian Justice Minister Romulo Gonzalez said Ecuador was not as certain of the FARC�s responsibility as it had previously indicated. Ecuador�s military identified the Americans as Dennis Correy, Steve Derry, Jason Wavey, David Bradley, Ron Sanders, and Arnold Arfold. Their home towns have not been released; Alford�s last name apparently was misspelled by the military. New Zealand said one of its citizens, named Dennis Corrin, was among the captives. The reason for the discrepancy with the military�s breakdown of the captives� nationalities was not immediately clear. The oil field is operated by Spanish energy giant Repsol YPF SA, the parent company of Houston-based Maxus energy. Mail Tribune reporters Chris Bristol and Dani Dodge contributed to this report. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.