Marxist rebels freed four Colombian hostages from their "living death" in the jungle on Wednesday in a victory for Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez, who brokered the deal.
Venezuelan helicopters painted with Red Cross logos swooped into dense jungle, picked up the four lawmakers - all taken by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, more than six years ago - and flew them to Venezuela.
"I was the living dead but today ... I am happy, lucky, radiant," ex-hostage Gloria Polanco said. She carried long-stemmed flowers for her three children, adding between sobs, "It's the only thing I can take from the jungle."
Flanked by armed rebels, the three men and Polanco trekked down a muddy slope of a jungle clearing near this steamy town and pumped their hands in the air to celebrate their release by Latin America's oldest insurgency.
They appeared generally in sound health, although one of the men, who had suffered heart problems, looked gaunt.
They also warned that the highest-profile of the dozens of captives left behind -- Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian woman politician, and three U.S. anti-drugs contractors -- was suffering from health problems and low morale.
Betancourt, a former Colombian presidential candidate whose case is a policy priority for the French government, is mistreated, kept in chains, has a serious liver problem and is mentally exhausted, they said.
The Americans have jungle illnesses and injuries received when their aircraft crashed in the jungle while on a anti-drug mission in 2003 leading to their capture, they added. They were also despondent because hopes they could be exchanged for rebel leaders in U.S. prison appeared to have faded this year.
Chavez, who welcomed the ex-hostages at a red-carpet, honour-guard ceremony in his palace, appealed at the televised event to the FARC's chief to move Betancourt to an area where she might receive better treatment and eventually be freed.
URIBE TALKS TOUGH
