Colombian FARC member pleads guilty to holding Americans hostage

A member of the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, widely known as FARC, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to charges stemming from the kidnapping of three Americans in 2003.

Diego Alfonso Navarrete Beltran, 43, admitted that he held three Americans hostage in the years after their single-engine airplane made a crash landing in the jungle near the town of Florencia, Colombia. Two other people onboard that plane — one American and one Colombian — were killed by members of FARC, a militarist rebel group that has been designated as a terrorist organization.

{mosads}The Americans were civilian contractors working on a surveillance mission to combat drug trafficking.

The three survivors were held hostage for the next five and a half years, and entered Navarrete Beltran’s control in October 2006. They were freed by members of the Colombian military during an operation in the summer of 2008.

“This defendant is now the third member of a Colombian terrorist organization convicted of charges for his role in the hostage-taking,” acting U.S. attorney Vincent Cohen said in a statement. “This case demonstrates the determination of law enforcement to investigate and prosecute terrorism against our citizens here and abroad.”

Navarrete Beltran was extradited to the U.S. from Colombia in November 2014.

As part of a plea deal, the Justice Department pledged not to ask for a prison sentence longer than 27 years. A sentencing has been scheduled for Nov. 10.