Colombia: Contractors captive for 4 years

BOGOTA, Feb. 13 (UPI) -- Three U.S. defense contractors have been held captive by Colombia's leading leftist rebel group for four years as of Tuesday.

Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell were captured by Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, when their plane crashed in southern Colombia.

FARC uses kidnapping and drug trafficking to fund its more than four decade-old civil war with the Colombian military.

Another American was killed at the site of the crash along with a Colombian man.