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Colombia arrests
suspect in isle
woman’s death
Lahe'ena'e Gay had gone to
Staff and wire report
Colombia to help the U'wa
hang on to their landAn alleged guerrilla commander suspected of killing Hawaii resident Lahe'ena'e Gay and two other Americans a year ago in northwestern Colombia was arrested today.
Gildardo Gonzalez was captured in Saravena, the northeastern city where the three Americans were abducted Feb. 25, 1999. Police also detained an Argentine man, whose name was not released.
Gay, 41, was kidnapped along with Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, a member of the Menominee nation in Wisconsin, and Terence Freitas of Los Angeles.
Their bodies were found, about a week after being abducted, by a farmer near the border with Venezuela. They had been bound and gagged and then shot.
The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Columbia, or FARC, admitted days later that one of its units had carried out the killings. However, U.S. and Columbia officials suspected a low-ranking rebel leader may have been taking the fall for a more senior commander.
Gay was the great-granddaughter of Francis Gay, a co-founder of Kauai's Gay & Robinson sugar plantation. On the Big Island, she started the Pacific Cultural Conservancy International.
She had gone to Columbia at the request of the U'wa, a tribe of 8,000 people in the Arauco region, who were fighting the presence of rebel groups, the government and oil interests on their land.
