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Kidnappers agree to a lower ransom By MONTE HAYES LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador � Kidnappers holding seven foreign oil workers hostage � including four Americans � agreed to free them in exchange for $13 million ransom, police sources revealed Friday. Oil company negotiators were insisting that the kidnappers first produce proof that the captives were alive and well, police sources said on condition of anonymity. The release process could take several days, they said. The ransom deal, far less than the kidnappers� initial demand of $80 million, averts a second killing in the four-month-long hostage crisis in the oil-rich Amazon region near a river that separates Ecuador and Colombia. Friends and family members continue to wait for news of the release of the hostages, who include three Gold Hill helicopter mechanics now in their 130th day of captivity. There was no word when Arnold Alford, 41, Steve Derry, 40, and Jason Weber, 29, all employees of Erickson Air-Crane, would return home. "The safety of our employees remains the first priority of Erickson Air-Crane," Lee Ramage, chief operating officer, said in a written statement Friday. "For this reason, Erickson remains reluctant to discuss details of the situation while the hostages remain in captivity. However, reports of the imminent release of the hostages are premature." It is likely that Ecuadorean and U.S. officials will debrief, or interview, the hostages after their release. Two weeks ago, the kidnappers fatally shot Ronald Sander, 54, of Sunrise Beach, Mo., five times in the back to pressure his company to pay up. They threatened to kill another hostage if the ransom wasn�t paid by Feb. 15. On Wednesday, the head of Ecuador�s military, Vice Adm. Miguel Saona, announced that the kidnappers had agreed to an unspecified ransom before the deadline. The kidnappers seized Sander and nine others � including the three Gold Hill men, David Bradley, an oil field platform foreman for Helmerich & Payne, and a Chilean, an Argentine and a New Zealander � Oct. 12 from oil camps 37 miles south of Lago Agrio. They were thought to be holed up in a jungle area between the Conejo and Bermeja rivers, northwest of the town. Two Frenchmen who were kidnapped managed to escape. Sander, a technician with Tulsa, Okla.-based Helmerich & Payne Inc., was found Jan. 31 on a jungle road, covered in a white sheet scrawled with the words in Spanish: "I am a gringo. For nonpayment of ransom. HP company." About 150 elite police troopers, in black and gray camouflage uniforms and bulletproof vests and carrying assault rifles, landed in this raw jungle town Wednesday and were deployed into the dense jungle only a few miles from the Colombian border. Lago Agrio, established 30 years ago as a main supply center for Ecuadorean oil workers as well as for settlers, is a steamy jungle outpost of farm supply outlets, hardware stores and bars that caters to Colombians who cross the border rolling in money from the cocaine trade. A sense of lawlessness pervades Lago Agrio, and it is not uncommon to see settlers from the surrounding jungle selling animal skins. Monkeys are more commonly kept as pets than dogs. The kidnap gang � described as a disciplined group armed with automatic weapons, dressed in military fatigues and apparently organized in a paramilitary structure � is believed to be made up of some 25 Ecuadorean, Colombian and possibly Peruvian members. Authorities here have speculated that the Colombians in the group could be deserters from the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, that country�s largest guerrilla organization, or one of its right-wing paramilitary rivals. Colombian guerrillas and the paramilitary fighters have been waging an increasingly pitched conflict on the Colombian side of the border for control of vast fields of coca, the raw material used to make cocaine. The kidnappers are believed to be the same criminal gang that held seven Canadians and an American for ransom in late 1999. They were freed unharmed after 100 days in captivity. Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.