Pubdate:  28 Aug 1997

8/28/97

BOGOTA (Reuter)  A man wanted for the 1982 kidnapping and attempted murder
of two U.S. drug agents in Colombia was arrested in neighboring Ecuador
Thursday and swiftly bundled aboard a flight to the United States. 

A statement from the U.S. embassy in Bogota identified the suspect as Jose
Ivan Duarte, a dual citizen of Venezuela and Colombia. It said he was
arrested in Tulcan, a town just across Colombia's southwest border with
Ecuador. 

The statement said Duarte was declared ``undesirable'' by the Ecuadoran
government shortly after his arrest and handed over to agents of the U.S.
Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) who flew him to Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.
where he will face trial. 

Thursday's arrest ended a 15year manhunt for Duarte, who along with another
man identified as Rene Benitez, is alleged to have kidnapped DEA agents
Charles Martinez and Kelly McCullough in Colombia's Caribbean port city of
Cartagena in June 1982. 

Martinez and McCullough were taken to an isolated area outside Cartagena
where both were shot before managing to escape into the surrounding jungle,
the embassy statement said. 

It quoted DEA chief Thomas Constantine as heralding the longawaited arrest
of Duarte and added that Benitez had been captured in 1995. 

``You can run, you can hide, but you better not sleep,'' Constantine was
quoted as saying. ``Because in 15 minutes, in 15 days, in 15 months or in 15
years the law and civilized governments will pursue you until you are
captured and brought to justice.''