Colombia denies U.S. request for rebel

BOGOTA, June 18 (UPI) -- Colombia's highest court has ruled that a top rebel from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, who was behind the captivity of U.S. military contractors will not be extradited to the United States.

Washington had requested the extradition of Martin Sombra, whose real name is Heli Mejia Mendoza, for his part in the six-year captivity of three Americans.

But the Supreme Court in Bogota ruled that the Americans were in Colombian territory when taken and the guerrilla had committed no cross-border crimes.

The three were seized in February 2003 when their drug surveillance plane crashed.

Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves and Tom Howes were freed in an audacious rescue operation in July 2008 along with former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 11 other hostages.

But unlike the international publicity that surrounded Betancourt during their captivity, the George W. Bush administration remained almost silent on the Americans, who were employees of a Northrop Grumman Corp. subsidiary that supported Colombia's fight against rebels and drugs.

Martin Sombra, known as the guerrilla's "jailer," has been in jail since his arrest in February 2008 after spending 40 years in the FARC ranks and managing several of its prisoner camps.

This is the second time the Supreme Court has denied Washington's request for the extradition of a top FARC member.

Nevertheless, some 800 other Colombians have been extradited under right-wing President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's staunchest ally in Latin America.

Since taking office in 2002, the president -- whose own father was killed by rebels two decades ago -- made a priority of ridding Colombia of armed groups and drug-traffickers.

Uribe enjoys a high public approval rating for successfully pushing the FARC rebels out of the cities and towns and into the jungle. A number of senior FARC commanders have been killed, and rebel desertions are mounting. However, the group still controls about one-third of the country.

The president has repeatedly offered to negotiate peace with the rebels if they lay down their weapons.

FOUR REBELS KILLED, LAPTOP SEIZED

In the meantime, clashes between FARC guerrillas and the army continue. Several firefights have occurred in recent days.

Last weekend a joint army-air force counterinsurgency operation in the southern province of Guaviare attacked four FARC camps to capture rebel chief Henry Castellanos Garzon. In the ensuring fighting at least five rebels were killed and the rest fled. Soldiers seized 17 guns and a laptop computer.

In a separate operation last weekend, army troops killed four FARC guerrillas in Sierra de La Macarena in east-central Colombia.

The FARC is thought to be holding around 20 police officers and soldiers in jungle hideouts, some for as long as 10 years. The group, which was founded in 1964, is estimated as between 7,000 and 10,000 strong.