With tears, smiles and long hugs, two women hostages were freed by Colombia's Marxist rebels on Thursday after years in the jungle, raising hopes for dozens more languishing in secret camps.
In a Venezuela-brokered deal, a helicopter flew deep into Colombia to pick up former vice-presidential candidate Clara Rojas and ex-congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez, and ferried them back across the border where a plane took them to Caracas.
In parting, the two kissed young armed women rebels on the cheeks and shook hands with the men in a grassy jungle clearing near the Colombian town of San Jose del Guaviare.
They then hugged the team that flew in to rescue them and spoke to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez with a satellite telephone, thanking him for his mediation.
"Please president, don't drop your guard. The ones left behind want me to tell you that ... We have to carry on working," said Gonzalez, 57, whose husband died during her six years in captivity. "A thousand thanks. You are helping us to live again."
Rojas, 44, who had a son by Caesarean section during her five years in captivity, appeared skinny and serene. Both women looked tired and pale but in generally sound health.
It was the first time Latin America's oldest rebel group has freed any of its high-profile hostages, who include a former presidential candidate, French-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt.
At Caracas airport, relatives bearing white lilies met the women. Some wore T-shirts with a message: "Freedom for everyone now."
Rojas wrapped her arms around her mother who uses a walking frame. A photograph of a child hung around her neck.
She told Colombian radio she had worried for years after she was separated from the boy not knowing where he was.
Gonzalez held her curly-haired granddaughter, whom she had never seen, and cried as she spoke into a phone.
