BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) -- Police on Thursday arrested an alleged guerrilla
                   commander suspected of ordering the brutal slayings of three American
                   activists in Colombia last year.

                   Gildardo Gonzalez was captured in Saravena, the northeastern city near where
                   the three Americans were abducted in February 1999 and allegedly executed
                   by leftist rebels, police spokesman Carlos Perdomo told The Associated Press.
                   Police also detained an Argentine man whose name was not immediately
                   available, Perdomo added.

                   Terence Freitas, 24, Ingrid Washinawatok, 41, and Lahe'ena'e Gay, 39, were
                   kidnapped and later killed while visiting a Colombian Indian tribe based near
                   the border with Venezuela.

                   Their bound and bullet-ridden bodies were found in a cow pasture March 4,
                   1999, just inside the Venezuelan border.

                   The rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, admitted days
                   later that one of its units carried out the killings, which caused an immediate
                   rupture in diplomatic contacts between the U.S. government and the guerrillas.

                   The FARC blamed the act on a "rogue" local squad leader it identified as
                   Commander Gildardo.

                    Copyright 2000 The Associated Press.