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29 March 2024

Colombia's FARC rebels free 10 hostages

Published
By AFP

Colombia's leftist FARC rebels on Monday released the last 10 police officers and soldiers they were holding hostage, but the country's president said the move was "insufficient."

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Latin America's last major insurgent movement, made good on a February pledge to release the hostages, all held for 12 to 14 years in the country's dense jungle.

The 10 men, visibly weary but smiling, emerged from a Brazilian air force helicopter at the airport in Villavicencio, the capital of Meta department located some 110 kilometers (70 miles) south of the capital Bogota.

"We all were singing in the helicopter, full of emotions," said mediator Piedad Cordoba, a former senator and the head of Colombians for Peace, which worked with the International Committee of the Red Cross on the operation.

On the tarmac, the former hostages -- one of whom had a bandage on his head and another draped in a Colombian flag -- thanked members of the ICRC for their help and were then handed over to a team of doctors.

After reunions with their families, who were waiting for them in a private room at the airport, the ex-hostages were to be taken to Bogota for thorough medical checks.

A group of foreign well-wishers, including Nobel peace laureate Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala, were also at the airport to welcome the former hostages.

The FARC had initially promised to free the men in two stages on Monday and Wednesday, but eventually released them all at once.

The operation to free the hostages took place over several hours "in a rural area between Meta and Guaviare departments," ICRC spokeswoman Maria Cristina Rivera said at the airport in Villavicencio.

A large sign was placed on the Villavicencio cathedral, reading, "We celebrate the return to life and liberty of our country's heroes."

The Colombian military has suspended all operations in the area ahead of the release.

The FARC has already released about 20 other hostages in a similar manner.

The Colombian army has saved other hostages, including former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, three US contractors and 11 others in a daring July 2008 operation.

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos welcomed the release of the hostages, but urged the guerrillas to go beyond their February pledge to end the practice of kidnapping for ransom.

"We share in the joy of these releases, and we especially appreciate the pledge by the FARC to stop kidnapping," Santos said in a brief televised address.

While he called Monday's events "a step in the right direction," he added: "as we said when the FARC announced these releases, it is insufficient."

Santos called for the release of all captives -- the FARC is believed to still holding more than 100 civilian hostages -- and a definitive end to violence.

The FARC, founded in 1964, is believed to have about 9,000 fighters in mountainous and jungle areas of Colombia, according to government estimates.

Last week, Colombian troops killed at least 36 suspected FARC rebels and captured four in an army offensive in Meta department, according to officials.