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Choppers to pick up FARC hostages

Undated file pictures of former Colombian lawmakers held hostage by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, from left to right and top to bottom, Orlando Beltran Cuellar, Gloria Polanco de Lozada, Jorge Gechem and Luis Eladio Perez. PHOTO: EPA

Two Venezuelan helicopters left for Colombia yesterday morning on a mission to pick up four rebel-held hostages who have spent more than six years in captivity, the Red Cross said.

The Venezuelan helicopters took off from the Venezuelan border town of Santo Domingo, said Yves Heller, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) spokesman in Bogota.

The two helicopters bore Red Cross insignia and were headed for an airport in the southern Colombian town of San Jose de Guaviare, he said. From there, the helicopters were to take off again for an unidentified spot in the Colombian jungles for the handover.

Rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) have pledged to free four former Colombian politicians, including Gloria Polanco, former senator Luis Eladio Perez, former congressman Orlando Beltran and ailing former congressman Jorge Gechem.

The Colombian government had given the Red Cross security guarantees to go forward with the mission, said Barbara Hintermann, head of ICRC operations in the country.

The rebels were to turn the hostages over to officials sent by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, as they did last month with former captives Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzalez, who were reunited with their families in Caracas.

Aboard the helicopters yesterday were Venezuelan Justice Minister Ramon Rodriguez Chacin and Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba, four Red Cross officials and doctors to treat the hostages. Both Polanco and Gechem have health ailments.
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