CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Colombian rebels freed two women held hostage for more than five years, handing them over yesterday to Venezuelan officials who flew them to Caracas, where a triumphant President Hugo Chavez awaited.
The release of Clara Rojas, an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, and former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez, was a major victory for Mr. Chavez, whose leftist ideology has helped make him a key mediator with the rebel Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by its Spanish acronym FARC.
The Caracas-based Telesur network showed the two women smiling as they were freed by rebels in fatigues.
“President, a thousand thanks for your humanitarian gesture,” Mrs. Gonzalez told Mr. Chavez by satellite phone.
“We are being reborn,” a beaming Miss Rojas told Mr. Chavez.
The two — who appeared thin but in relatively good condition — were flown by helicopter to an airstrip in the Venezuelan border town of Santo Domingo, where they were helped onto a small passenger jet for the flight to Caracas.
Two women embraced teary relatives who met them on the tarmac at Simon Bolivar International Airport outside the Venezuelan capital.
Mr. Chavez engineered the most important hostage release in the Colombian conflict since 2001, when the FARC freed about 300 soldiers and police officers. Mr. Chavez said he hopes the mission opens the way for the release of more hostages.
“Venezuela will continue opening the way for peace in Colombia. We are ready, and in contact with the FARC, and we hope the Colombian government understands. I’m sure they will understand,” Mr. Chavez said. “The world wants peace for Colombia.”
Miss Rojas was kidnapped in February 2002 while campaigning with Mrs. Betancourt in a FARC-dominated region of southern Colombia. Mrs. Gonzalez was abducted by the FARC in September 2001 near the city of Neiva.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe authorized Venezuela to lead the rescue mission despite a bitter clash with Mr. Chavez over his involvement in Colombia’s half-century-old guerrilla conflict.
In November, Mr. Uribe abruptly ended efforts by Mr. Chavez to broker a swap of 46 high-profile hostages — including Mrs. Betancourt and three U.S. defense contractors — for hundreds of jailed rebels. He accused Mr. Chavez of unauthorized direct contacts with Colombia’s military.
But relatives of the hostages urged Mr. Chavez to continue, and the FARC, which distrusts Mr. Uribe, rewarded his efforts by offering to release the two women and Miss Rojas’ 3-year-old son, Emmanuel — who was fathered in captivity by one of her guerrilla captors.
That agreement failed: The FARC accused Colombia’s U.S.-backed military of sabotaging the transfer with operations in the area, while the Uribe government said the guerrillas backed out of the deal because they didn’t have the child hostage. DNA tests later proved that the rebels did not have Emmanuel, who has been in a Bogota foster home for more than two years.
Still, the Uribe government bent to domestic and international pressure to open its airspace for the new Venezuelan rescue mission and suspend military operations in a Vermont-sized slice of jungle in southeastern Guaviare state, a FARC stronghold.
The Bush administration, which has had tense relations with the leftist Mr. Chavez, welcomed the hostages’ release and reiterated its call for the FARC to release all of its captives.
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