MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Released FARC hostages meet relatives in Venezuela

FARC hostages arrive at Maiquetia airport

Four hostages held by Colombian FARC rebels were released on Wednesday, in a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The hostages arrived in Venezuela after being handed over to a delegation sent by Chavez at an undisclosed location in the Colombian jungle. They then flew on to the capital Caracas where relatives are waiting. However FARC announced it will not free more hostages until Colombia creates a demilitarized zone for peace talks. It hopes to swap some 40 remaining high-profile hostages it still holds for rebels in state jails. The hostages, all former members of Congress, are Luis Eladio Perez, 50; Gloria Polanco, 42; Orlando Beltran, 50 and Jorge Gechem, 57. Three were kidnapped in 2001 and Gechem in 2002. The four were handed over to Venezuelan and Colombian politicians and Red Cross personnel, who had arrived in the jungle on two helicopters to collect them. Video footage showed the hostages appearing, raising their hands in the air and embracing officials sent to pick them up. Venezuelan government spokesman Jesse Chacon said Mr Chavez had already spoken by phone to the released hostages. Mr Chacon said he hoped the release "will help us continue advancing on the path to achieving liberations of the remainder and of course to what we all yearn for: peace in Colombia". The helicopters took the hostages back to Venezuela, where they were transferred onto private planes for the flight on to Caracas. Among relatives waiting in Venezuela's capital, Mr Gechem's wife Lucy was emotional when she heard the news. "I don't know what I am going to say to him, because it is going to be such a happy moment," she told local radio. "I always waited for him and I always fought for him". Ties between Colombia and Venezuela have been strained in recent months. But last month, Mr Chavez helped broker a deal to free two hostages, Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, who were picked up by Venezuelan helicopters from Colombian territory and flown on to Caracas to be reunited with their waiting families. The release will raise hopes that more hostages might be freed, among them French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three US defense contractors. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said it was a "powerful encouragement" in the task of freeing the remaining captives. US state department spokesman Tom Casey welcomed the move, but said it was "reprehensible" that the FARC was continuing to hold hostages. The rebels have long wanted to exchange their high-profile hostages for hundreds of jailed guerrillas. But Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has maintained a firm stance against the cocaine funded FARC, which is regarded as a terrorist group by the US and the European Union.