Man Sought for Killings In Ecuador Captured in N.Y.

PALENVILLE — A suspect in the 1999 assassination of a leftist former Ecuadorean presidential candidate was handed over to American immigration officials in upstate New York yesterday.

Christian Steven Ponce, 36, of Quito, Ecuador, was arrested Saturday in the hamlet of Palenville on the eastern edge of the Catskills. He was pulled over for not wearing his seat belt, but a warrant check showed he was wanted in Ecuador connection with murder, Greene County Sheriff's Deputy Greg Stewart said.