Bogota, Dec 27 (IANS/EFE) A soldier captured last week in the southwestern Colombian province of Cauca was handed over Friday to a humanitarian delegation led by the International Red Cross, the FARC rebel group said.
"Pvt. Carlos Becerra Ojeda has been liberated today (Friday) by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia's (FARC) Jacobo Arenas Column," the rebels said in a statement in Havana, where the insurgents and the Colombian government have been holding peace talks since November 2012.
The soldier was handed over to the representatives of the Red Cross, the Colombian government and the government's peace-process guarantors Cuba and Norway, the statement said.
President Juan Manuel Santos hailed the release of the soldier, while implicitly criticising the FARC for taking him prisoner in the first place.
"We hope this release is a demonstration of the irreversible decision to end the conflict and that this type of thing does not happen again," the president said on Twitter.
--IANS/EFE
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