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FLY HOME: Helicopters from Venezuela, marked with the International Red Cross logo, take off at an airport in San Jose Del Guaviare. The FARC guerrillas agreed to hand over four Colombian lawmaker hostages to a representative of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in the second such operation brokered by the left-wing leader.
Marxist rebels have freed four Colombian lawmakers held hostage for years in the jungle, in a victory for President Hugo Chavez of neighboring Venezuela who brokered the deal.
Venezuelan helicopters painted with Red Cross logos swooped into the dense jungle to pick up the three men and a woman, all snatched by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, FARC, more than six years ago.
The lawmakers said a prayer at the handover to give thanks for their freedom and were fit enough to fly to Venezuela despite reports of illness, Colombia's ambassador in Caracas said.
"We want the relatives to know they are in our hands and safe and sound," said Venezuelan government spokesman Jesse Chacon, adding Chavez spoke to the freed Colombians by telephone.
The release, welcomed from France to the United States, is a diplomatic victory for Chavez, an important regional player who spends time and money in efforts to unite Latin America through socialism but frequently bickers with US-backed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
A column of about 60 rebels handed over Gloria Polanco, Luis Eladio Perez, Orlando Beltran and Jorge Gechem, who is believed to be suffering severe heart problems, the Venezuelan government said.
"I don't know what I am going to say to him, because it is going to be such a happy moment," Gechem's wife Lucy told local radio. "I always waited for him and I always fought for him."
Chacon said the handover raised hopes for a broader deal to free dozens more hostages, who include French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and three Americans whose plight has drawn worldwide attention to the rebels' captives.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who has made Betancourt's freedom a policy priority, welcomed Wednesday's release and called for the rapid liberation of all hostages. The United States urged the rebels to free all captives.
The FARC last month released two politicians in a deal also brokered by the leftist Chavez in the first such breakthrough in talks on peace moves for years.
He had spent months in talks with the leaders of Latin America's oldest rebel force, but after close initial cooperation, Chavez and Uribe have argued over his mediation.
Gechem was snatched six years ago when rebels hijacked a commercial aircraft he was traveling on and forced it to land on a secret landing strip before spiriting him away.
Polanco was kidnapped with her two sons, who were later released. Her husband, a prominent politician, was later killed by the FARC in unclear circumstances.
The guerrilla fighters hold hundreds of hostages for ransom and political leverage in their four-decade war with the state. They say they are fighting for social justice and want to swap their captives for fighters held in government jails.
The recent releases have been unilateral and are described by the fighters as a gesture of goodwill to Chavez, whom they see as a sympathetic leader.
International pressure has built recently for a hostage deal with European nations also seeking to free captives.
Grim images of Betancourt in a secret camp last year sparked outrage over the hostages poor health, their faces showing the stress of living for years hidden in the jungle.
The FARC released a statement shortly after the operation reiterating their demand Uribe briefly demilitarize a New York City-sized swath of land for the handover of other captives.
Uribe, whose father was killed in a botched FARC kidnapping, is popular at home for a US backed military offensive that has forced the rebels from large swathes of Colombia. He has offered a smaller area for a prisoner swap.
