Colombian Hostages Joyfully Return to Families

Chavez receives pair at presidential palace
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 10, 2008 9:25 PM CST
Colombian Hostages Joyfully Return to Families
Consuelo Gonzalez, released hostage of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, left, her daughter Maria Fernanda Perdomo, center, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, holding Gonzalez's granddaughter Juliana, released hostage Clara Rojas, second right, and Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba...   (Associated Press)

Two freed hostages are back with their families tonight after years of captivity in the Colombian jungle, CNN reports. "We are being reborn!" said Clara Rojas as she was reunited with her elderly mother in Venezuela. "This is like living again," said her fellow former hostage, Consuelo Gonzalez. "Sometimes I think it's a dream."

The two women thanked Hugo Chavez for negotiating with the Colombian rebels who kidnapped them. "You're helping us, president, return to life," said Rojas, 44, in a taped telephone call. She was kidnapped in 2002, Gonzalez, 57, in 2001. A previous attempt to free them collapsed last month. (More Venezuela stories.)

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