MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Liberated Colombian hostage eager to reunite with her son

Clara Rojas, one of the two women hostages released by Colombian cocaine funded FARC rebels says she is eager to be reunited with her young son. The three-year-old son, fathered by one of her rebel captors, was taken from her at eight months and is now in foster care in Colombia.

Ms Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez were released in a deal overseen by the Red Cross and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe praised the release and repeated his call for talks with the rebels. Speaking after the women were handed over by the rebels and flown to Venezuela on Thursday, he said talks should be simple and in good faith, but added that peace would not be achieved by appeasement. He read out the names of more than 700 people still held by the left-wing group. FARC wants further releases to be part of an exchange involving hundreds of their own jailed rebels. Ms Gonzalez, 57, was kidnapped in 2001. Ms Rojas, 44, an aide to former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, was seized in 2002, while she and former presidential candidate Ms Betancourt were out campaigning. Ms Rojas told Colombia's Caracol radio network she had had no news in three years of Ms Betancourt, who is still in captivity. She said they had been split up by the rebels for security reasons. Together at the beginning of their captivity hey attempted to escape but got lost in the jungle and finally were recaptured. In punishment they were kept chained for weeks. But she said her priority now was to hug her son Emmanuel, named because "he is God's gift". She revealed that the boy was born by Caesarean section in the jungle on 16 April 2004. Ms Rojas said a FARC male nurse, who had studied medicine but did not graduate, attended the birth accompanied by two other nurses. She said it was a difficult labour, and she then spent 40 days motionless following the Caesarean. "He was tiny, divine, and his smile was what struck me the most" she added. After the birth, she was only allowed to see him for a few hours a day, until he was eight months old and taken away suffering from illness and an arm problem from the birth. Mr Rojas said she "was tenacious" having the baby, but told Caracol Radio it was thanks to him that she was alive. Earlier this month, DNA tests confirmed that the boy had been traced to a Bogota foster home. Ms Rojas is expected to be return from Venezuela to be reunited with him soon. On arrival in Caracas emotional scenes greeted the arrival of the hostages as Ms Rojas was reunited with her elderly mother and Ms Gonzalez embraced her daughters and a granddaughter she had never met. The two women said the FARC had given Venezuelan authorities proof, including letters and videos, that 16 other hostages were alive.