Venezuela and Columbia - things are moving by Barbora Misakova

Two captives held in jungle by Colombian rebels are back in Venezuela. After a long time, actually after 6 years of living in the jungle, Clara Rojas and her 3-year-old son are back home and very happy. When they landed in Caracas greetings were emotional. Hugo Chavez, Venezuelan President, even hugged them and kissed when they came to the presidential palace. Rojas is one of more than 750 hostages held by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia). She was Ingrid Betancourt's campaign manager in February 2002 when she was Colombian presidential candidate. Ingrid Bentacourt is anti-corruption activist and holder of 2 citizenships (French and Colombian). They both were kidnapped on February 23 in 2002 during campaign trail and hold for years in the jungle. While Rojas was freed Colombian rebels didn't agree with releasing Betancourt. Rojas had to endure a lot of pain and even she is free now, part of her is still in captivity & her 3-year-old son Emmanuel. He was born in jungle and is a son of one from Columbian guerillas. He couldn't go with his mother and so he stayed in the jungle with rebels. Rojas is very investigative and she knows the Koran, Jewish history etc. and when public found out she has a son Emmanuel her mother believed that it is a message from her daughter. She said: "I don't like melodrama, but I feel my daughter was sending us all a message by naming her son Emmanuel." The second freed hostage kidnapped by FARC was Consuelo Gonzalez, a former congresswoman who was kidnapped in September 2001. Both freed women are incredibly happy and thankful to everyone, especially to president Chavez for his humanitarian gesture, but all realize that this is not the end. This is just the beginning of the very long process of liberating more than 7 hundreds hostages still held by the FARC.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080110/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_colombia_hostages;_ylt=AvZE6UTM8V51Ww8nzO11FsOs0NUE

by Barbora Misakova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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