Colombian FARC guerrillas are holding 3 CIA agents, who were captured on
February 13th, after their Cessna spy plane was shot down in the Florencia
municipality in the southern Colombian department of Caqueta.

The rebels confirmed the capture of the US agents in a communique signed
by the Secretariat of the Central Staff of the Revolutionary Armed Forces
of Colombia-People's Army (FARC-EP) last Friday. It is seen as one of the
most significant recent setbacks for the US forces supporting extremist
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe in Colombia's civil war.

The plane was carrying out counterinsurgency spy operations when it was
downed and two of the five-member crew killed: Colombian Army Sargeant
Luis Alcides Cruz and former US military officer Jennis Thomas who had
been contracted by the CIA.

Colombian authorities have claimed that the two men were executed, but
local campesino eyewitnesses told Colombian daily El Espectador, that the
two soldiers were killed during a firefight with the guerrillas after the
shootdown.

According to Miami Herald, US officials have confirmed that the plane's US
crew members were indeed carrying out military-related electronic
intelligence gathering.

FARC and combined US and Colombian military forces have clashed repeatedly
in the area after the capture of the CIA agents. In the communique
released by the FARC, the rebels urge the US and Colombian soldiers in the
area to hold their fire in order to be able to guarantee the safety of the
captured spies.

"We can only guarantee the life and physical integrity of the three gringo
officers in our power if the Colombian army immediately suspends the
military operations, as well as the overflights, in the area of Santana de
las Hermosas, San Antonio de Atenas, San Pacho, San Guillermo, Ano Nuevo,
la Esperanza, el Para and Norcasia," the statement said.

The White House has responded to the military setback by ordering an
additional 150 US troops from the Special Forces to help with
"intelligence and logistical assistance" in the "search and rescue"
operations for the captured crew members of the spy plane.

On the same day the CIA plane was downed the US House and Senate approved
the a new federal bill allocating $773 million in funds for the Andean
region for 2003, an increase of more than $100 million over last year.
The aid is overwhelmingly military and includes $88 million to protect an
oil pipeline operated by US-based Occidental Petroleum in eastern Colombia
from rebel attacks.