Colombian mistress of 79-year-old British consul, denies ‘cruel’ claims she was involved in their abduction in Ecuador



Tuesday, April 29, 2025 - The British consul and his Colombian mistress kidnapped by a gang of 15 armed men in Ecuador have spoken for the first time about their terrifying ordeal.

Colin Armstrong, now 79, was abducted from his weekend home outside Guayaquil along with his partner Katherine Paola Santos, 30, in December 2023. Ms Santos was strapped into what she believed was an explosives vest and told it would detonate unless she obeyed orders.

Police initially questioned why Santos was released early, probing whether she had been part of the scheme. She has strongly denied any involvement, and investigators found no evidence linking her to the crime. "People were cruel. I felt very sad that they could make jokes and lie about us at such a terrible time," she told The Times.



Armstrong, a businessman from North Yorkshire and former British Consul in Guayaquil, was freed after agreeing to pay $2 million for his release. Speaking about the ordeal, he said: "People had warned me not to take the same route to work or the ranch and to use an armoured vehicle with an escort. But I always laughed off the threat of kidnap. Then it happened."

He described being taken from his 4,000-acre cattle ranch after gunmen burst in, bound his wrists, and bundled him naked, wrapped only in a sheet, into his own car alongside his girlfriend. They were driven for hours to a remote farmhouse where they were held hostage.

Ms Santos had volunteered to accompany him. Armstrong, who met Santos in 2013 and fell in love, said their affair caused friction with his Ecuadorian wife of 50 years, Cecilia. "I still love my wife," he said, adding he has never considered divorce.

During the kidnapping, Armstrong said the gang appeared uninterested in Santos, but she insisted on staying with him, telling them: "He's an old man. I need to look after him or he'll die."

The two were kept for four days in a small room with mattresses on the floor and furniture barricading the windows. Armstrong feared his captors might check their bodies for implanted tracking devices — a growing tactic in Ecuador’s crime wave — and possibly harm them if they found any.

At one point, the gang strapped a jacket to Santos that they claimed was rigged with explosives. She was tasked with delivering a phone to Armstrong’s son, Nick, who had taken over as British Consul. Threatened with detonation if she approached police, Santos carried out the mission. Police explosive experts later determined the vest was a fake.



Meanwhile, Armstrong remained captive. His captors initially demanded $5 million. Nick pretended to agree, alerting the British Embassy in Quito. With mounting pressure from Ecuadorian authorities, several gang members were arrested in Guayaquil. The gang leader threatened to kill Armstrong in retaliation.

Hostage negotiators worked carefully to bring down the ransom demand. Eventually, the captors agreed to Armstrong's release in exchange for a promise to pay $500,000 a week over a month.

Armstrong was freed by a roadside near a brothel and picked up by police. Apart from some minor exhaustion, he was declared in good health. A photo released by police showed him wearing a baseball cap, standing between two officers.

He reunited with Cecilia and his two daughters just days before Christmas, sharing the harrowing story over a bottle of wine.

Police said the motive behind the kidnapping was purely financial. They later seized a cache of weapons from the gang, including grenades, firearms, ammunition, detonators, and large quantities of controlled substances.

Despite everything, Armstrong and Santos have stayed together, choosing to continue their relationship after surviving an ordeal that nearly cost them their lives

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