U.S. Technician Is Kidnapped by Rebels

A U.S. helicopter technician working under contract for British oil giant BP Amoco has been kidnapped by leftist rebels in an eastern oil-rich region, police said. Matthew Aaron Burtchell was snatched by four heavily armed gunmen as he traveled by taxi to the town of Yopal, provincial capital of Casanare, police said. Burtchell, whose age and hometown were not given, worked for the aviation firm Air Logistics and was based at BP Amoco’s Cusiana-Cupiagua oil field, close to Yopal. Police blamed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, for the abduction. In March, a unit of FARC--the nation’s oldest and largest insurgent group--kidnapped and killed three U.S. activists, whose bodies were found in a Venezuelan border town.