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Soon after the three were kidnapped, they were marched toward the Venezuelan border through virgin rain forest and harsh terrain. When her body was found, Washinowatok had no shoes and her feet showed cuts and abrasions suggesting she had been forced to walk barefoot. She had been bitten by a poisonous spider, and the FARC refused to give her proper medication after a quick visit to a guerrilla-friendly doctor, according to Colombian intelligence documents. When the Venezuelan police recovered her body, her face was destroyed with a gunshot, and her American Express cards with her name and the name of her foundation were lodged in her panties. "The way they killed them was torturous," said the Venezuelan captain who found the bodies.

American Indians now admit that they made major miscalculations in their analysis of the FARC during those eight days when Washinowatok was held captive. "We operated from the point of view -- hey, we're Indians. Ingrid had studied in Havana, she spoke Spanish and she had worked with Indian people all over. We thought it should be OK," said Alex Ewen of the Solidarity Foundation, a New York Indian philanthropic group. "We didn't understand that this group was different."

Although the FARC is a self-declared Marxist-Leninist group that has been fighting the Colombian government for the last 30 years, its tactics reflect what one Colombian analyst has called a "Gen-X revolutionary" style, a mixture of Marxism and outlaw capitalist practices they have learned from drug traffickers, who pay them up to $500 million a year for protecting cocaine plantations and drug shipping routes.

"These people have nothing in common with other revolutionary movements in Central America. They are the same as drug traffickers," said Cornell's Barreiro. "But you have to understand, Indians have a hard time criticizing revolutionary movements."

Many American Indians believed that being Indians committed to the cause of the underdogs kept them safe from harm -- even though 11 U.S. citizens have been killed by the FARC in the last 20 years. They were also lulled because last year the FARC had released three Americans bird-watchers unharmed. "Everybody told us the FARC only kidnapped for ransom," said Barreiro.

The murders have changed that perception. A few community members still doubt the FARC carried out the murders. But the prevalent image among the community at large -- from small Indian tribal chiefs around the country to legendary American Indian Movement figures such as Clyde Bellecourt and John Trudell -- is that the FARC are simple criminals. "The truth is that the left is the worst for indigenous people," said Trudell in a telephone interview from Los Angeles. "No matter how you want to see the FARC, you don't kill non-combatants."

The American Indian community has been holding strategy sessions along with Washinowatok's husband, Ali El Issa, a Palestinian she met in Havana. "We have a lot of people in this country and other countries who are eager to support a revolution, and the FARC gets some of their support. Our interest is to get to those people and show them what the FARC is capable of doing -- of murdering potential allies," explained Trudell, who shies away from calling their efforts a war. "We have little resources, but we will be heard." Options are to hack into the Web sites used by the FARC for propaganda purposes and broadcast Washinowatok's picture and biography, and to expose the names of people who work for the FARC in the United States and in Europe. Indian leaders are not saying when they will start their campaign, to keep the element of surprise.

Colombian authorities have charged FARC rebel leader German Suarez Briceno, known as "Grannobles," and a U'wa Indian who informed on the activities of Washinowatok and her companions the week they visited the reservation, for the murders. Both are at large, and there are no expectations that the Colombian authorities will ever catch them. Grannobles is brother to Jorge Suarez Briceno, aka "Mono Jojoy," a brother of German, and the second most powerful military leader within the FARC's top command. Indian leaders say the order to kill the Americans came from Mono Jojoy, but U.S. officials say only that the order came from the central command.

The FARC has rejected the Colombian indictment, maintaining that a guerrilla commander known as Gildardo acted without the approval of his superiors. They have promised a guerrilla investigation, but no results have been released, and radio intercepts show a less repentant attitude.

Two months after the murder, for instance, Grannobles was heard on short-wave radio saying, "The Americans were killed because they worked for the DEA and the CIA and had come to this country to turn the Indians against us." While the FARC has issued a public apology for the murders, it has never communicated directly with the community, nor answered requests by Washinowatok's family to meet with rebel representatives.

"In the end they will know Indians are neutral people, and we should be treated that way. We have a long tradition at this," warned Ewen. But Rosemary Richmond, director of the Indian Community House in New York, put it more plainly. "We will not rest until there is justice," she said.
salon.com | Dec. 14, 1999

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