Thin but elated, two women held for more than five years by Colombian Marxist rebels were greeted by tearful relatives yesterday after being released from their jungle hideouts in a Venezuelan-brokered deal.

Clara Rojas and Consuelo Gonzáles, both politicians, were handed over by rebel commanders to the Red Cross and flown to Caracas in a day of lightning developments that led to hopes for the release of 45 other prominent captives.

“This is like living again!” Ms Gonzáles proclaimed as she greeted her two-year old granddaughter for the first time. “Sometimes I think it’s a dream.”

President Chávez of Venezuela, whose earlier attempt to broker the women’s freedom failed on New Year’s Eve, made a triumphant announcement of their release.

“They are free. I told them both, ‘Welcome to life’,” Mr Chávez told reporters in Caracas.

The mission began when rebels from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) contacted Mr Chávez in the morning to direct Venezuelan helicopters to a landing site. Waiting for their rescuers in a clearing, Ms Rojas and Ms Gonzáles kissed the cheeks of heavily armed women rebels and shook hands with the men before flying out, as their former captors marched back into the jungle.

The release raised hopes of a happy resolution to the unfolding saga of Emmanuel Rojas, 3, the child born to Ms Rojas while in captivity. News of his existence came to light last year when an escaped hostage reported seeing Ms Rojas, an aide to the kidnapped Franco-Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, with a child fathered by one of her captors.

When the deal was struck to free the women on New Year’s Eve, the rebels had agreed to include Emmanuel in the handover. They backed out after discovering that the child was no longer in their custody.

Two years ago, when Emmanuel became ill with severe malnutrition, rebels gave him to José Crisanto Gomez, a go-between, so that he could receive medical care. Mr Gomez took the baby to hospital but doctors, suspecting child abuse, handed him to social services in Bogotá, who placed him in foster care.

The Venezuelan Interior Minister, Rámon Rodriguez ChacÍn, who accompanied the flight, returned carrying proof from Farc that eight other high-profile hostages remained alive. The rebel group’s concessions raised the possibility of an end to the plight of 45 other hostages, including Ms Betancourt and three American contractors, whom the Farc have been hoping to exchange for about 500 imprisoned rebels.

Last night Ms Gonzáles called on Mr Chávez to continue negotiations. “Please, President, don’t drop your guard. The ones left behind want me to tell you that,” she told the Venezuelan leader, who has indicatedthat he hopes to work towards the release of further hostages. “We are ready, and in contact with the Farc,” he told reporters earlier, “and we hope the Colombian Government understands.”

Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s right-wing President, only grudgingly accepted the help of the flamboyant socialist leader under pressure from the hostages’ families after the failure of his own attempts to resolve the crisis.

Ms Rojas, a 44-year-old lawyer, and Ms Betancourt were snatched from the campaign trail in 2002. Ms Rojas revealed last night that they were split up after being taken hostage and that she had no news of Ms Betancourt. “About Ingrid, for the past three years I’ve had no idea,” she said on Colombian radio.

Their green party, Oxygeno, named Ms Rojas as a vice-presidential candidate after the kidnapping. Two years after she was snatched, she bore Emmanuel. There are high hopes that mother and child will be reunited, although it is not clear if Ms Rojas’s relationship with the father was consensual.

Ms Gonzáles, 57, was seized in September 2001 when her car was ambushed close to her home in Pitalito. A member of the country’s Liberal Party, she was one of six politicians to be held by the Farc. Her release will be tinged with sorrow because her husband, Jairo Perdomo, also a politician, died in 2005 while she was in captivity. It is not known whether she was told of his death.

The captives

— The Farc are thought to hold 750 hostages, including policemen, soldiers, politicians and defence contractors. Forty-five of the most high-profile are being considered for an exchange. These include:

— Sigifredo Lopez, the last survivor of 12 politicians kidnapped in 2002 by rebels dressed as police. The Government says the other 11 were mudered, Farc claims they were killed in a shootout

— Thomas Howes, Marc Gonsalves and Keith Stansell, three US contractors captured after their aircraft crashed in the jungle in 2003. The US Embassy in Bogotá says that they are the longest-held US hostages in captivity

— Pablo Emilio Moncayo and José Libio MartÍnez, two army officers who marked the end of their tenth year in captivity in December. They were 19 and 20 when taken

Source: Agencies

Times Recommends

• Please help: maimed children of war want their lives back
• Cabal seizes diamond riches to buy power
• White House gatecrashers got to the president