Leonard Carter, 23, a Navajo tribal member from Hatch, Utah, was one of eight construction workers kidnapped by armed guerrilla soldiers at gunpoint at an oil pipeline project site last weekend in dense jungle near the border with Colombia.

The other seven are from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Four European tourists were also taken hostage by the guerrillas, who included about 22 men and three women speaking with Colombian accents, according to eyewitnesses.

But what group is responsible is not yet clear. There has been speculation that the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC), a leftist Colombian rebel group known for kidnapping people for ransom, was responsible. But according to El Universo, an Ecuadorian daily newspaper based in Guayaquil, commander Ivan Rivers, a spokesman for FARC, denied the accusations. echoed by an unnamed U.S. state department official.

According to El Universo, an unidentified "high-level" U.S. State Department employee met with journalists in Washington Thursday following a conference between a Colombian chancellor and Secretary of State Madelyn Albright. The anonymous source stated that the FARC was responsible and that the kidnapping "is one more indication" of the rebel group's lack of seriousness in the negotiations for peace.

But Ecuadorian Minister of Defense Jose Gallardo stated at a press conference in Ecuador that he could not confirm whether FARC carried out the offense or some other rebel group, according to El Universo.

The newspaper also reported that thousands of pamphlets had been distributed in Sucumbios, the region where the kidnappings occurred, stating that FARC was not responsible for the crime.

According to another Ecuadorian newspaper, El Metropolitano, North American planes had left from a nearby airbase to make flights over the region to look for evidence of the guerrillas and their hostages, who according to many reports are now believed to have crossed the border into Colombia.