First extradited Colombian FARC rebel appears in U.S. court

<a href=www.sun-sentinel.com>sun-sentinel.com-The Associated Press Posted May 29 2003, 4:55 PM EDT

MIAMI -- The first rebel extradited by Colombia appeared in a U.S. court Thursday to face charges in the killing of three Americans who were helping set up a rural school system near the Colombia-Venezuela border.

Nelson Vargas Rueda, a member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), was brought into court in a wheelchair, missing the prosthetic right leg he wore for the flight north Wednesday.

Speaking through a Spanish interpreter, Vargas said he owned a house in Colombia but has had no job for three years and has no money to hire an attorney.

A public defender was named to represent him at a bond hearing next Tuesday. After that, he likely will be flown to Washington to face trial on a federal murder conspiracy indictment.

Vargas, 33, is charged in the 1999 executions of Terence Freitas, 24, of Los Angeles, Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, of New York City, and Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, of Pahoa, Hawaii.

The Americans were in Colombia to help set up a school system for the U'wa Indian tribe in the vast eastern plains bordering Venezuela. Rebels kidnapped the trio in February 1999 and later executed them. Their bullet-riddled bodies were found across the border in Venezuela.

Vargas was arrested in Bogota in June 2001 and has been in jail since. He is one of six members of the rebel group known as the FARC to be charged in the killings.

The FARC has admitted its fighters killed the Americans but blamed a rogue lower-level commander and said he would be punished by the insurgent group.

The murders prompted the United States to suspend all contact with the leftist rebel group fighting the Colombian government for nearly 40 years.

The United States lists the FARC as an international terrorist organization and has provided Colombia with millions of dollars, mostly in military aid, to fight the guerrillas.

The United States also wants Colombia to extradite several other FARC rebels, including top leaders, as well as a paramilitary leader in drug trafficking cases.