Caracas: Two high-profile female hostages held for years in the Amazon jungle have landed in Caracas after leftist Colombian rebels handed them over to the government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Clara Rojas and former legislator Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo landed aboard a private jet in Caracas yesterday after Venezuelan helicopters plucked them hours earlier from a secret site in the Colombian jungle.

Gonzalez's daughters Patricia and Maria Fernanda had a tearful reunion with their mother on the tarmac, while Rojas kissed her mother Clara Gonzalez, 76.

Gonzalez also met her two year-old granddaughter for the first time. "This is like living again," she said, holding the baby in her arms. "Sometimes I think it's a dream."

The relatives wore t-shirts that read "Freedom for all now."

Rebels with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) kidnapped Gonzalez in 2001,and Rojas, who ran the presidential campaign of Franco-Colombian Ingrid Betancourt still held hostage in February 2002.

The guerrillas agreed to release the two to the leftist government of neighbouring Venezuela with mediation from the International Committee of the Red Cross, but not directly to their foes in the Colombian government of conservative President Alvaro Uribe.

Rojas, 44,and Gonzalez, 59,where picked up by Venezuelan helicopters, which then landed in the far western Venezuelan town of Santo Domingo to switch their passengers to a Falcon executive jet for the flight to Caracas.

Source : PTI