A Colombian policeman held hostage for more than eight years by leftist guerrillas today recounted his daring escape and 17 days spent lost in the jungle before finally being rescued.

John Frank Pinchao Blanco broke free from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebel camp where nearly 60 other hostages are being held, including three Americans and Ingrid Betancourt, a former presidential candidate.

“The last time I saw them was April 28,” Pinchao Blanco told a news conference, in which he tearfully recalled nights spent chained by the neck to his fellow captives, and the moment when he saw his chance to slip his bonds and flee during a police operation.

“I took advantage of the circumstances that were presented to me, in spite of thinking that they would never exist,” he said. “God's decisions led me to freedom."

His voice was raw as he spoke, his frame emaciated and his hands scratched from hiding for more than two weeks in the rough. He said that he feared his actions might spark reprisals against the other hostages.

The non-commissioned police officer was abducted on November 1, 1998, during a bloody Farc attack in Mitu, the province’s capital. The guerrillas attacked a police base, killing some officers and taking more than 60 hostage. He said he was held with a group of 13 hostages, including some other police officers.

Pinchao Blanco said the hostages were frequently moved from one location to another, and that over the years they ceased talking about their situation.

“We no longer talked about the abduction because it was a topic that was so thrashed out after nine years, but we did speak of family themes,” he said.

He said he spent time with Betancourt, a cause celebre in France who was snatched in 2002, as well her running mate Clara Rojas, and three American men who were taken hostage in 2003.

Betancourt, a Colombian politician with dual French-Colombian nationality who was once married to a French diplomat, was seized while campaigning for president.

Pinchao Blanco said that he had seen Rojas, though he did not specify when, at a time when the prisoners were being separated into smaller groups.

“She had a child who must be around three years old now,” he said, adding that the son, Emmanuel, had been fathered by one of the guerrillas.

Times Recommends

• Tehran cannot live up to its rhetoric
• The new unicycle that will ‘change the world’
• We cannot wish away Iran’s bomb