A Colombian grandfather to the children of a U.S. defense contractor held by leftist rebels offered Saturday to take his place in captivity, saying the man’s twin 4-year-olds should finally meet their father.

Campo Elias Medina said he will send a letter and photos of the children to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, asking if he can replace his daughter’s boyfriend, Keith Stansell, who was kidnapped more than four years ago.

“They should take me as a hostage so that he can be released from captivity,” Medina told RCN news. “I think it’s more important that (the children) have their father at their side than their grandfather, and plus I’m already 55 years old.”

Latin America’s largest guerrilla army took Stansell and two other U.S. defense contractors hostage after their plane crashed in the thick jungles of southern Colombia while they were on an intelligence gathering mission in February 2003.