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Colombian hostages freed
10/01/2008 20:33 - (SA)
Bogota - Colombian rebels, who on Thursday freed two women political activists, still hold hundreds of ordinary people in their isolated Amazon jungle hideouts, many of whom have endured years in captivity.
The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by their Spanish acronym FARC, are one of the world's oldest insurgencies and have been fighting to overthrow the government for more than 40 years.
The Colombian government estimates the rebels hold some 750 hostages, including soldiers, policemen, politicians and defence contractors, in addition to some 45 now being considered for exchange as part of a swap deal.
Clara Rojas, freed on Thursday, was seized in 2002 along with French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt - the most high-profile of the hostages - as they were campaigning for Colombia's presidential elections.
Rojas, a 44-year-old lawyer, was Betancourt's campaign manager in the 2002 campaign. Their green party, Oxygeno, named Rojas as a vice-presidential candidate after the kidnapping.
Rebel's child
Two years after she was snatched, Rojas bore a child, Emmanuel, who was conceived in a jungle camp after what is believed to have been a consensual relationship with one of her captors.
But before his first birthday, the frail, ailing child was taken from his mother and entrusted to the care of a family living in a remote Colombian village before eventually ending up in a foster home in Bogota.
After a botched attempt to free the hostages in December, renewed attention focused on the boy, who is now around three-years-old, and DNA tests have shown he is probably Rojas's son.
Hopes are high she will soon be reunited with the child, and the two will be able to rebuild their lives.
Car ambushed
The second hostage released on Thursday was politician Consuelo Gonzalez, 57, who was seized in September 2001 when her car was ambushed close to her home in the Colombian town of Pitalito.
A member of the country's Liberal Party, she was one of six former lawmakers being held by the FARC.
But her release will be tinged with sorrow as her lawmaker husband, Jairo Perdomo, died in 2005, while she was in captivity.
Thursday's releases raise the prospect that the 45 other hostages, including Betancourt, three US citizens, and several Colombian politicians and officials, may be liberated if Bogota agrees to free 500 jailed FARC members.
The three Americans - Marc Gonsalves, Thomas Howes and Keith Stansell - were seized while working as defence contractors, when FARC fighters forced down their plane in February 2003.
The 45 are the core group of political hostages deemed "exchangeable" by the guerillas. But Thursday's releases are only the first by the FARC in five years.
10 years in captivity
Among those still held are two Colombian army officers, Pablo Emilio Moncayo and Libio Jose Martinez. On December 21 they marked the end of their 10th year in captivity, making them the longest-held hostages in the world.
They were aged just 19 and 20 when the FARC attacked their base and seized them along with 16 companions in 1997. The other 16 were released in 2001, part of a handover of 226 military hostages for 14 rebel prisoners.
Another group, Asfamipaz, run by the families of kidnapped military and police personnel, says up to 250 soldiers have been missing for more than 10 years.
FARC's hostages are only a part of what gives Colombia the grim distinction of being the kidnapping capital of the world.
All told, 23 400 people have been taken hostage by armed groups or common criminals since 1996, according to Pais Libre. Currently, Colombia-wide, some 3 000 still being held, it said.
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