Colombian rebels released a kidnapped soldier to a humanitarian mission in the remote southern jungle, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Sunday. In the first of two planned handovers, guerrillas freed Josue Daniel Calvo, a soldier held for nearly a year since he was wounded in combat and captured by the FARC, Latin America's longest-running insurgency.
The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, planned to release the second of the 23 police and soldiers it held to the Red Cross team and leftist Senator Piedad Cordoba on Tuesday.
"In the hours of the afternoon today in a rural part of Meta State, the soldier Jose Daniel Calvo was handed over by the FARC," the Red Cross said in a statement.
The release is the latest unilateral handover by the FARC, which calls it a goodwill gesture. But broader peace talks appear unlikely with President Alvaro Uribe, whose US-backed campaign has battered the FARC to its weakest position in decades.
The army halted operations during Sunday's handover while a loaned Brazilian army helicopter with the Red Cross ensignia ferried the mission to a secret jungle location.
The rebels on Tuesday planned to release Pablo Emilio Moncayo, who was captured more than 12 years ago when rebels overran his army base. One of the longest-held FARC hostages, Moncayo has become a symbol of those left behind in the jungles. H0e has only been seen occasionally in rebel videos over the years.
Once a powerful army fighting for a socialist state, the FARC relies now on ambushes and bombs to harass troops. With very little popular support, rebels finance their operations with cocaine trafficking, kidnapping and extortion.