Leftist rebels on Saturday freed two hostages held for about five months, after the turnover was scuttled a week ago by a disagreement over government troops in the area, the International Red Cross announced.
The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, released a police officer and cadet in the La Dorada jungle region of Putumayo province, about 540km southwest of the capital Bogota, near the Ecuadorean border.
"After the failed operation of last week, delegates of the Red Cross went to the Putumayo River to receive the police officers Eder Luis Almanza Patron and Carlos Alberto Legarda Rosero," the Red Cross said in a statement.
The hostages were released in good health.
The initial announcement that the men would be released came as a surprise.
FARC has largely rejected peace entreaties, declaring as recently as January that it would never negotiate with the government of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
"The government thanks the discreet work of the Red Cross," he told Radio RCN on Saturday.
He urged FARC to release all of its captives.
Colombia's largest and oldest rebel forces, FARC still hold about 60 politically prominent Colombians and three US defense contractors.
Kidnappings
The group uses kidnappings as a source of income and to pressure the government in its struggle to establish a Marxist-style state.
Almanza and Legarda were taken hostage by FARC during an attack on a police station in the town of San Miguel in Putumayo province.
Colombia's civil war has raged for more than four decades, pitting the rebels against the government and right-wing paramilitary forces that have in the past operated with the tacit support of the armed forces.
Kidnappings have fallen by more than 70 percent since Uribe took office in 2002 and increased the number of soldiers and police. Colombia, however, remains a world leader in abduction, with 800 kidnappings reported last year.
To mediate the hostage release, FARC chose dark-horse presidential aspirant Alvaro Leyva, a former government minister with long-standing relations with FARC who has promised to jump-start peace talks with the rebel group.
But Leyva withdrew from direct participation after Colombia's president criticized the political connotations of the arrangement. Uribe is expected to ride the popularity of his hard-line policies to a second term in the May 28 elections.
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