Captured Marine is ‘a tourist’

A FORMER US Marine who Colombia’s insurgent movement Farc says it “captured” a month ago in a turbulent south-eastern region is a tourist, Washington’s ambassador has said.

A Colombian police general said Kevin Scott Sutay, 26, had entered a dangerous part of the country against warnings.

The rebels offered to free Mr Sutay as a good-faith gesture in announcing on their website on Friday night that he was in their custody.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or Farc, said Mr Sutay had described himself as a 2010-11 veteran of the Afghan conflict who left the armed forces in March.

It did not say how it came to have Mr Sutay but suggested he was “a mercenary.”