By TIM JOHNSON
             Herald Staff Writer

             BOGOTA, Colombia -- A rebel leader admitted Wednesday that a guerrilla unit
             executed three U.S. indigenous rights activists after taking them hostage, and said
             a rogue commander would be tried by the insurgency and could be put to death.

             Raul Reyes, a chief of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC),
             blamed a leader of the FARC's 10th Front for the killings.

             ``The FARC offers an apology to all the indigenous peoples of the world and
             people around the continent,'' Reyes said. ``It is not the policy of the FARC to
             disappear Colombians or people of other nationalities.''

             But Reyes emphatically rejected calls that the commander, whom he identified only
             as ``Gildardo,'' be turned over to Colombian or U.S. courts to stand trial.

             U.S. authorities have demanded that Colombia capture and extradite the FARC
             rebels who left the bullet-riddled and bound bodies of Ingrid Washinawatok, 41,
             Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, and Terence Freitas, 24, on the banks of the Arauca River in
             Venezuela on March 4.

             Reyes said Commander Gildardo was ``on a reconnaissance mission with three
             other units'' when they learned that foreigners had entered a reserve of the U'wa
             Indian group in northeast Colombia.

             ``Upon finding them, he captured and executed them without consulting higher
             authorities,'' Reyes said in a short statement outside the jungle town of San Vicente
             del Caguan.

             Reyes said top rebel leaders would hold a council to determine Gildardo's fate,
             which he said could include ``drastic measures'' like a firing squad. He said
             Gildardo ``is under arrest.''

             By offering up Gildardo, a previously unknown guerrilla, the FARC took blame off
             German Briceño Suarez, a powerful regional commander of the FARC deeply
             involved in drug trafficking.

             Intercepted radio communications from the FARC indicate that Briceño gave the
             order to kill at least one of the Americans.

             Reyes described reports that Briceño had a role in the killings as ``absolutely
             false.''

             A U.S. official said the 10th Front of the FARC, which Briceño oversees, is
             ``almost a motorcycle gang'' and ``really narco-dirty.''

             Other units of the insurgency have strayed less far from the Marxist orientation of
             its leaders, the official said, asking for anonymity.

             Reyes said he did not know if the rogue FARC unit tortured the U.S. activists or
             why it dumped their bodies across the border in Venezuela.

             He offered apologies to Venezuela and its president, Hugo Chavez, ``for this
             lamentable event, which is not the policy of the FARC. In spite of this, we hope to
             improve relations every day between Colombia and the Venezuelan people.''

             Reyes said the killings ``fall outside the norms and spirit of the policies of the
             guerrilla organization, which is fighting for a society different than the one we have
             today.''

             Even so, Reyes warned anyone who plans ``to penetrate areas of the FARC to
             first identify themselves and ask for authorization to avoid any unfortunate
             incident.''

             In Washington, two congressional leaders are demanding a U.S. indictment of the
             guerrillas responsible for killing the three hostages, according to a copy of a letter
             they sent to FBI Director Louis Freeh this week, which was obtained by The
             Herald.

             ``There must be prompt and aggressive action to establish the facts and indict the
             FARC leaders who are responsible for the kidnapping and killing of these three
             Americans,'' Reps. Benjamin Gilman, chairman of the House Committee on
             International Relations, and Dan Burton, Chairman of the House Committee on
             Government Reform, say in the letter.

             ``Those responsible must be promptly brought to justice.''

             Herald staff writer Andres Oppenheimer contributed to this report.
 

                               Copyright © 1999 The Miami Herald