By TIM JOHNSON
             Herald Staff Writer

             BOGOTA, Colombia -- The bodies of three U.S. activists kidnapped last week
             by Colombia's largest rebel group were found amid signs they had been tortured
             and killed in cold blood, authorities said Friday.

             The bodies were found near the Arauca River that separates Colombia and
             Venezuela. The victims had been blindfolded and tied up.

             It was the first premeditated killing of U.S. citizens by the Revolutionary Armed
             Forces of Colombia (FARC) in the insurgency's 34-year history, and threatened
             to end U.S. support for Colombia's efforts to reach a peace accord with the
             rebels.

             The victims were identified as Terence Freitas, 24, an environmentalist from Los
             Angeles; Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, a member of the Menominee Indian nation of
             Wisconsin; and Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, also a native Indian, who headed the
             Hawaii-based Pacific Cultural Conservancy International. All were working with a
             remote indigenous group, the U'wa, that is in conflict with the Colombian
             government.

             The U.S. State Department said their families had been notified.

             The killings sent the administration of President Andres Pastrana into tumult.
             Pastrana met into the night with his defense, interior and foreign ministers.
             Television reports said he had spoken by telephone with President Hugo Chavez
             of Venezuela.

             Those who found the three bodies in the Venezuelan hamlet of Los Pajaros beside
             the Arauca River voiced shock at their condition.

             Tortured and shot

             ``It is apparent that these people were quite badly treated,'' said Venezuelan army
             Gen. Rigoberto Martinez. ``Imagine, their hands were tied and they were
             blindfolded.  . . . They were treated cruelly. Each one was shot many times.''

             ``The two women were shot four times and the man six times,'' said Col. Luis
             Eduardo Tafur of the Colombian national police.

             Authorities blamed the 45th Front of the FARC for kidnapping the three
             Americans in northeastern Colombia on Feb. 25 as they were leaving a reserve of
             the U'wa tribe, an indigenous group of 8,000 people.

             Late Friday, Colombian army commander Gen. Jorge Enrique Mora released a
             recording of what he said was a radio conversation intercepted between two rebel
             leaders in which FARC commander German Briceño Suarez is told that one of the
             kidnapped Americans is in poor health.

             ``Let her die. After all, she's not a member of our family,'' the voice identified as
             Briceño's replied. It was not clear when the conversation took place.

             The U'wa, one of more than 80 indigenous groups in Colombia, is in conflict with
             the central government over oil drilling rights in their reserve.

             The oil-rich region around the reserve and to the east -- where the bodies were
             found -- is overrun by FARC guerrillas and cocaine traffickers.

             Visitors worked with Indians

             The U'wa had welcomed the American visitors.

             ``All of them were defending human rights and environmental rights. They are
             environmentalists, activists who are working on the international level,'' said
             Evaristo Tegria, an U'wa spokesman.

             Relatives of the three Americans said they simply sought to help native people.

             ``They went with peaceful intentions to Colombia under the auspices of Pacific
             Cultural Conservancy International. Their sole mission in Colombia was to learn
             the conditions and needs of their host, the U'wa people,'' a Feb. 28 statement from
             relatives said.

             Fellow environmentalists and indigenous activists received the news with shock
             and bitterness.

             ``One can't understand how this disastrous news is possible. It has no forgiveness
             from the Gods,'' said Abadio Green, an indigenous leader.

             Ransoms finance rebels

             Since 1980, more than 80 U.S. citizens have been taken hostage in Colombia,
             most of them by the FARC or a smaller group, the National Liberation Army.
             Both groups pocket tens of millions of dollars a year from ransoms paid to gain
             freedom for kidnap victims.

             No hostage demand was known to have been made for the U.S. activists.

             Several U.S. citizens are still believed held by the guerrillas.

             In the best-known case, guerrillas snatched three American missionaries -- Mark
             Rich, Dave Mankins and Rick Tenenoff -- on Jan. 31, 1993, from a village in
             Panama's Darien Gap near the Colombian border. The missionaries were working
             with the Kuna ethnic group.

             Family members maintain hope that the three are still alive, although the FARC
             says it never kidnapped them.

             Two other U.S. missionaries from the New Tribes Mission of Sanford, Fla.,
             Timothy Van Dyke and Steven Walsh, were held for a year and a half by
             Colombian rebels before being killed in 1995 during a skirmish between guerrillas
             and government troops.

             Chester Bitterman, a linguist with the Summer Linguistic Institute in Colombia, was
             kidnapped in 1981 by a radical splinter group of one of the leftist guerrilla
             movements. He was executed when the group, which translates the Bible to native
             languages, refused to comply with demands that it cease activities in the country.

             The only other U.S. citizen previously known to have been killed by guerrillas was
             Frank Pescatori, a hostage believed held by the National Liberation Army. His
             body was found in late February 1997.

             A cloud over peace efforts

             The new killings threatened to further chill the stalled peace negotiations between
             the Pastrana government and the FARC, a well-armed insurgency that has been
             fighting since 1964. The FARC, financed by its kidnappings and its protection of
             the drug trade, has grown vastly in this decade, now presenting a serious
             destabilizing threat to Colombia's democracy.

             Pastrana launched peace talks with FARC leaders Jan. 7, but the talks broke
             down later that month over a spate of retaliatory killings by right-wing militias.

             FARC leaders have warned against a growing U.S. military presence in Colombia,
             but have never made any direct threat to U.S. citizens who were not involved in
             the civil war.

             U.S. assistance to Colombia has tripled to $289 million this year, most of it aimed
             at fighting a booming illicit cocaine and heroin trade. At least 30 groups of U.S.
             soldiers are slated to arrive in Colombia this year for training missions.

             U.S. law permits authorities to hunt down those who commit crimes against
             Americans abroad and bring them to the United States to stand trial.
 

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