Colombian leftist rebels release two high-profile hostages

By DPA

Bogota/Caracas : Two hostages were released Thursday by leftist Colombian rebels, a possibility that had seemed dead only days earlier, and reunited with their families in Caracas hours later in a moving scene.

After their release, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, both former Colombian politicians, called for continued efforts to free the hundreds of others held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), while the international community saw the release as a sign that a more comprehensive hostage liberation effort could be possible.

Rojas told Colombian radio station Caracol from Venezuela's capital Caracas that she had been separated from former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt - under whom she ran for vice president - early in their captivity of almost six years.

"I have had no news about Ingrid for three years," Rojas told Betancourt's husband Juan Carlos Lecompte.

Betancourt, who holds dual French-Colombian citizenship and is the highest-profile hostage held by FARC guerrillas, was captured with Rojas in 2002 when they were running for office together.

The rebels who released Rojas and Gonzalez in the Colombian jungle also handed over to Red Cross officials proof of life of several other hostages, Rojas said.

"Freedom for all now!" said the T-shirts worn by the family of former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez, 57.

After more than six years in captivity, Gonzalez left the plane first and got to hold her three-year-old granddaughter for the first time. Rojas, 44, movingly hugged her elderly mother, who uses a walker.

Rojas' son, three-year-old Emmanuel, who was born in captivity, was conspicuously absent from the family reunion. However, Colombian authorities have said the boy, who was being held under a different name in a child protection facility since 2005 and who was only recently revealed to be Rojas' son, is likely to be handed over to his family in the coming weeks.

Rojas said her son, fathered by a rank-and-file rebel member, was taken away from her eight months after his birth.

The politician said she only found out Dec 31 that Emmanuel has been under state custody since mid-2005. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe made public the startling news to explain why FARC failed to deliver Emmanuel, Rojas and Gonzalez to a high-profile international mission at the end of 2007, as they had promised to do.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who led efforts to secure their release, was not present when the released hostages first met their families, although he later hosted them at the presidential palace.

Two Venezuelan helicopters marked as Red Cross vehicles had earlier travelled to coordinates provided by FARC in the southern Colombian jungle to retrieve the hostages, then brought them back to Caracas. It was the second attempt in two weeks to free them.

"They are in our hands, we are very happy," said Barbara Hintermann, head of the Red Cross in Colombian capital Bogota.

In footage from Venezuelan television channel Telesur, the women were shown saying goodbye to their captors and later talking to Chavez, asking him to persist in his efforts to free other hostages.

The two women appeared to be in good condition and were visibly happy.

Red Cross spokesman Yves Heller said it was not known when Rojas and Gonzalez would return to Colombia, or whether FARC planned to release other hostages in the coming days.

Colombian Defence Minister Juan Manuel Santos expressed his satisfaction with the releases and said he hoped FARC would follow the move by freeing some 750 other hostages.

Chavez said the next objective was the liberation of all FARC hostages and "beyond that, to seek peace for Colombia".

The Colombian government authorised the latest mission and ordered the suspension of military operations in a large area of the southern province of Guaviare.

In 2007, Chavez acted as a mediator in an effort to secure an exchange of some 50 politically relevant FARC hostages for hundreds of leftist rebels held in prison.

But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe dismissed him from the job in November, after talking directly with a Colombian general after he had specifically been asked not to do so.

FARC's offer of the hostages was seen as a goodwill gesture towards Chavez after his dismissal.

Rojas was kidnapped Feb 23, 2002 along with Betancourt. Gonzalez, then a legislator for the opposition Liberal Party, was kidnapped Sep 10, 2001. Her husband, former legislator Jairo Perdomo, died of heart problems in 2003, during her captivity.

The team sent to witness the hostages' release included Venezuelan Interior Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin, the Cuban ambassador to Venezuela, four Red Cross delegates and Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, who worked with Chavez last year in mediation efforts.