Ex-hostage Stansell: ‘I survived because of my family!’

LAKEWOOD RANCH — Keith Stansell says the thick growth of palmettoes and oaks that comes right up to his back door is nothing like the Colombian jungle where he spent more than five and a half years in captivity.

No, it’s nothing like the triple-canopy jungle darkness where he was held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, from Feb. 13, 2003, to July 2, 2008.

“This is not jungle,” Stansell said. “The jungle is a place where sunshine can’t reach.”

He was working as an anti-narcotics contractor for Northrop Grumman doing drug surveillance when his plane lost an engine and crashed in Colombia’s southern jungle. He and his fellow contractors, Marc Gonsalves and Thomas Howes, would become among the longest-held hostages in American history.

The hostages were kept at fixed locations in brutal conditions for months, and then marched 15 to 18 kilometers a day through the jungle. He became emaciated from malnutrition and infested with parasites.

The captors took turns making beans and rice and, once in a while, filled a tub with hot water and added instant coffee.

Stansell kept a journal for years but finally burned it.

“All I saw was misery and pain,” he said.

And then July 2, 2008, it suddenly ended when Colombian undercover agents deceived the rebels into handing over the three Americans, as well as kidnapped Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and 11 Colombian police officers and soldiers.

A helicopter filled with Colombian commandos posing as leftist humanitarian relief workers picked up Stansell and his colleagues and flew them to freedom without a shot being fired.

Stansell, 44, now seems all the way back from darkness and is talking about his experiences as described in a new book, “Out of Captivity,” written with Gonsalves and Howes with Gary Brozek.

After his rescue, Stansell went into seven months of self-imposed exile, declining to talk to the media and remaining low-key with his family. He made only one appearance, on CNN, during that time.

“I noticed that many hostages once they are released seem to talk endlessly,” Stansell said. “I didn’t want to do that. I thought it was better to assemble my thoughts and feelings.”

Those thoughts and feelings, which he is now ready to share, are powerful and delivered in measured and calm tones.

He relates that the simple act of shaving can now bring euphoria. Every day he notices the red marks from the neck chain he wore and realizes that a day without neck chains can’t ever be bad.

“Oh yeah, I was a guy who enjoyed his things,” Stansell said. “But after five and a half years in the jungle, I lost every personal belonging. Now I realize physical stuff is zero. It’s just stuff. It’s actually liberating to be free of it.

“How I survived is that I found my strength,” Stansell said. “You have to find out what makes you live. For me, that was my children. I decided never to give up. I decided that if I was free for only one day, that would be worth spending 10 years as a prisoner.”