This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It will not be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/world/americas/7949671.stm
The article has changed 3 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
Version 1 | Version 2 |
---|---|
Swedish hostage freed in Colombia | Swedish hostage freed in Colombia |
(1 day later) | |
Colombia's main left-wing rebel group, the Farc, has freed its last known foreign hostage, a Swedish man abducted two years ago, Colombian officials say. | |
Video footage from the state security agency showed a man identified as Erik Roland Larsson, 69, being lifted from a canoe and carried across marsh land. | |
The retired engineer, who was abducted in May 2007, is in poor health. | |
The Farc still hold several hundred hostages, most for ransom. It is not known if money was paid in this case. | |
Decades-long fight | |
Mr Larsson was snatched in May 2007, along with his Colombian wife, from their farm in the northern state of Cordoba. | |
She escaped after less than a month in captivity, during a gun battle between rebels and police. | |
The Farc had initially demanded $5m (£3.6m) for Mr Larsson's release, but it is not known whether any ransom was eventually paid. | |
The BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Bogota says the guerrillas are now more reliant on the drugs trade to finance their activities. | |
Colombia's DAS security police said Mr Larsson was in a "delicate state of health" and was being seen by doctors in the city of Monteria in the country's north-west. | |
In an interview with the Associated Press last month, Mr Larsson's son Tommy said the Farc had sent him a video of his father. | |
"A doctor saw the video and it appears that he had suffered from a stroke. His right arm, leg and parts of his face are paralysed," Tommy Larsson told AP. | |
Farc guerrillas have been fighting the government since the 1960s. | |
But the rebels have suffered setbacks in recent years as the government drives them further into mountain and jungle areas. |