Leftist rebels on Tuesday freed the last known foreign hostage held in Colombia, an ailing 69-year-old Swede kidnapped nearly two years ago from the ranch where he’d retired.
Erik Roland Larsson, paralyzed in half his body, was handed over to detectives in a rugged region of the northern state of Cordoba, DAS state security agency chief Felipe Munoz said.
Munoz said various Swedish non-governmental organizations had sought his freedom.
“For us, it’s obviously a very happy day,” Swedish embassy counselor Tommy Stromberg said.
He said he did not know if a ransom had been paid to Larsson’s captors, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), but that Swedish police had worked closely with the DAS on the case.
The FARC sought US$5 million in ransom, said the DAS, adding that Larsson was being examined by doctors in the nearby city of Monteria and would later be flown to Bogota.
Larsson was kidnapped from his ranch, not far from where he was freed, on May 16, 2007, along with his Colombian wife. She escaped that same month following a gun battle between her captors and police.
He had retired in Colombia after working for Skanska AB in construction.
Larsson’s son Tommy, who lives in Sweden, said on Feb. 1 that he’d recently received a proof-of-life video but no ransom demand.
“A doctor saw the video and it appears that he had suffered from a stroke. His right arm, leg and parts of his face are paralyzed,” Tommy Larsson said then.
Larsson became Colombia’s last known foreign hostage on July 2, when military agents posing as a humanitarian mission airlifted three US military contractors and the French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt to freedom in an elaborate ruse.
At least 22 Colombian soldiers and police continue to be held by the FARC as political bargaining chips.
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