Released U.S. hostages arrive home from Ecuador

MEDFORD, Oregon (CNN) -- Three oil workers held hostage in the jungles of Ecuador returned home to Oregon on Saturday after five months in captivity.

The three men -- Arnold Alford, Steve Derry and Jason Weber, all of Gold Hill, Oregon -- were reunited with their families Saturday morning, said Martha Erickson, a spokeswoman for their employer, Erickson Air-Crane.

They were among 10 people abducted at gunpoint October 12 from an oil field in the Pompeya jungle region, about 45 miles south of the border with Colombia. The hostages included five Americans, a New Zealander, two French men, a Chilean and an Argentine.

The kidnappers killed one American, 54-year-old Ronald Sander, in order to pressure his employer, Helmerich and Payne, to pay a ransom. A second Helmerich and Payne employee, David Bradley of Casper, Wyoming, was released Friday. The two French hostages managed to escape.

Erickson would not say whether a ransom had been paid, but Ecuador's government has raised concerns that any ransom payment would encourage other kidnappings in the country's northern border region.

Speaking at a news conference in Medford, Oregon, on Saturday, Weber and the others described being kidnapped by guerrillas and being forced at gunpoint to walk from campsite to campsite, as their captors tried to avoid being detected by the military and police.

Part of the ordeal involved what the hostages were forced to eat. "Sometimes you'd have (tea)," Weber said. "Other times you got rice or sardines." Weber also confirmed reports that the hostages sometimes were given rodent meat to eat.

The hostages were released Thursday and left Ecuador's capital Quito by private plane Friday evening after undergoing medical examinations.

"We wish to express our deepest gratitude to both the families and the Erickson employees for their patience, faith and support during this trying period," said Lee Ramage, chief operating officer of Erickson Air-Crane, in a written statement.

"We send our prayers and support to the Sander family," Ramage added.

The captors were believed to have been professional kidnappers from Colombia, Ecuador's northern neighbor. Colombia has the world's highest kidnapping rate, with about 3,700 a year.

Ecuador has been beset by its own problems, including an Indian uprising that led to a coup in early 2000 and a severe economic crisis. Those problems have left it vulnerable to violence spreading out from Colombia, where government forces are battling leftist insurgents and a massive, lucrative cocaine trade.

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