MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

FARC releases former governor captive for eight years

Colombia's biggest guerrilla group freed Tuesday former Governor Alan Jara, a captive for almost eight years, in what it called “goodwill” gesture even as the rebels step up terror attacks on the nation's cities.

The former hostage, 51, stepped off a Brazilian government helicopter bearing the Red Cross emblem at Villavicencio airport in Meta province, and embraced his family after flying from a jungle clearing in Guaviare province. Jara, who said he has health problems, will be taken for medical tests. "I'm free, I'm free," Jara shouted to reporters as he crossed the tarmac with his wife and son. Jara was to have been freed on Monday, but the handover was delayed. Jara's release comes two days after the FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas released three police officers and a soldier who were abducted more than one year ago. FARC is expected to free another hostage, Sigifredo Lopez, this week. Jara's release, the fifth since February first, comes amid a stepped-up urban bombing campaign by the FARC. Five people have died and about 50 suffered injuries in two separate attacks in Bogota and Cali in the past week. The government pledged to intensify its offensive against the leadership of the FARC, as the group is known, that's hiding in camps deep in the jungle. The guerrillas' ranks have been cut in half by a six-year campaign under President Alvaro Uribe. Jara, who taught English and Russian to fellow captives, was seized from a United Nations car in 2001. The captives freed this week are the first to be unilaterally let go since July when government troops tricked the guerrillas into giving up their most prized hostages, former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and three US contactors. FARC said Dec. 21 in a statement published on a Web site sympathetic to its cause that it would free six captives as a sign of "goodwill." Once Lopez is released, the FARC will hold no more civilians among the 22 remaining so-called political captives it has used to pressure President Uribe to swap them for jailed rebels. "A hostage swap is urgent, we can't drag this out any longer," said Jara in a press conference after being freed. "They are literally rotting in the jungle."