Rebels free Colombia soldiers

For the carefully orchestrated release, a rebel publicity coup, the men arrived in Cartagena del Chaira aboard Russian-made MI-17 helicopters provided by the government. The were accompanied by their rebel captors and Red Cross workers.

8220;We8217;re happy. Long live Colombia,8221; one freed soldier said through the window of one of three helicopters. Said another: 8220;It went well because I came out alive.8221;

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC 8212; Latin America8217;s oldest active insurgents 8212; captured 60 of the soldiers on August 30 when rebels overran a remote military outpost in nearby Las Delicias.

Twenty-seven soldiers also died in the skirmish 8212; the government8217;s most embarrassing defeat in more than 30 years of low-level conflict.

The other 10 were captured in a January ambush in Colombia8217;s north-west.

The soldiers were driven to the town8217;s Central Square and tearfully embraced waiting relatives. A ceremony followed on a podium draped with the rebel banner.

A half-dozen European ambassadors and Costa Rican and Guatemalan delegates were on hand.

Before the handover, rebels, wearing arm bands with the national colors of red, blue and yellow and carrying automatic weapons, marched up a hill to the town8217;s abandoned military post.

8220;This is a triumph for us,8221; said one guerrilla, whose group8217;s reputation has been sullied by its Reliance on kidnapping and extortion and involvement in the drug trade.

The freed soldiers, clean-shaven and in apparent good health, did not complain of mistreatment and said the guerrillas loaned them radios and sometimes permitted them to watch television. The worst, they said, were the insect bites.

8220;I don8217;t yet understand who is the winner here, perhaps both sides because they showed they are for peace. That8217;s what the negotiations were about,8221; said Maria Gonzalez as she awaited the release of her 24-year-old son, Alcidas.

But the country8217;s leading columnist, Enrique Santos Calderon, wrote in the Bogota newspaper El Tiempo on Sunday that the rebel group has shown no willingness to negotiate an end to the conflict.

Santos called the soldiers8217; release a political, tactical public relations and even a diplomatic triumph for the FARC.

Rebel demands include land reform, a constitutional reform to limit the authority of the armed forces and political representation. The military, an influential, behind-the-scenes player in government policy, labels them greedy killers with no political agenda.

Rebels have long had a strong presence in this southern region, collecting commissions on coca leaf harvests from cocaine traffickers.

An editorial in the Cali newspaper El Pais wondered 8220;if the demilitarization that facilitated Sunday8217;s release had allowed the export of narcotics.8221;

Many people in rural areas view the rebels as a security force more reliable than the Army, which lacks resources, is made up largely of conscripts and is blighted by a poor human rights record.