Terror Group Member Pleads Guilty To Holding 3 U.S. Hostages
WASHINGTON (AP) -- A member of the leftist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia faces a possible life sentence after admitting his role in the 2003 kidnapping of three Americans.
Navarrete Beltran pleaded guilty Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Washington to three counts of hostage-taking, which carries a maximum sentence of life in prison.
FARC is Colombia's main rebel movement. The three Americans were conducting counterdrug aerial surveillance in southern Colombia when they were forced to crash land and were captured. U.S. authorities say Beltran often guarded the hostages, who were freed by the Colombian military in 2008.
The 43-year-old Beltran was extradited from Colombia to the United States in 2014. FARC commander Alexander Beltran Herrera was previously sentenced to a 27-year prison term following his extradition.
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