Image copyright AFP Photo/ RCN TV Image caption Mr Sanchez was taken hostage in April 2016 - after agreeing to take the place of his sick brother

Colombia's National Liberation Army (ELN) rebels have freed a key hostage, clearing the way for peace talks with the government next week.

Ex-congressman Odin Sanchez, 62, had been held by the ELN since he offered to swap places with his ailing brother in April 2016.

President Juan Manuel Santos had insisted Mr Sanchez be released before peace talks could begin in Ecuador.

He was handed over in the remote jungle region of Choco, in western Colombia.

The government confirmed Mr Sanchez's release, saying: "Odin Sanchez is now with the humanitarian commission and will leave minutes from now in a helicopter bound for [the regional capital] Quibdo."

In exchange, President Santos sanctioned the release of two jailed ELN fighters.

Nixon Cobos and Leivis Valero were handed back in the mountains of Santander, in the country's north-east.

The ELN announced earlier this week that it was also holding another hostage, a Colombian soldier previously reported missing by the army.

Freddy Moreno was seized on 24 January in the eastern province of Arauca.

The ELN said it was willing to release him, too.

The ELN, a 2,000-strong communist guerrilla army, has been in conflict with successive Colombian governments since 1964.

Last year the government signed a peace accord with the country's largest rebel group, the Farc, and Mr Santos has said he wants a deal with the ELN to bring complete peace to the country.

Talks with the the group were due to begin last October, but collapsed when the rebels refused to release Mr Sanchez.

They are now scheduled to open on 7 February in the Ecuadorean capital Quito.</s>Colombia's National Liberation Army rebels have freed a key hostage, clearing the way for peace talks with the government next week. Ex-congressman Odin Sanchez, 62, had been held by the ELN since he offered to swap places with his ailing brother in April 2016.

Start the conversation, or Read more at BBC News.</s>Colombia's ELN guerrillas freed a hostage on Thursday and the government released two rebel prisoners in exchange, clearing the way for peace talks to begin next week.

The government hopes talks with the one remaining active rebel group in Colombia will seal a "complete peace" to end Latin America's last major armed conflict.

Odin Sanchez, a former lawmaker held captive since April 2016, was handed over to the Red Cross in the remote jungle region of Choco in western Colombia.

He was later welcomed by relatives and supporters waving signs and playing music in Quibdo, the regional capital.

"We have to unite to make those devils... join in a dialogue, so we can talk about peace and so they will release anyone else they may be holding," he said.

The government in turn released the two jailed rebels, Nixon Cobos and Leivis Valero, in the mountains of Santander, in the northeast.

Described by their side as in poor health, they were met by ELN delegates on their release from prison.

"Welcome to freedom," the force's radio station ELN Ranpal said on Twitter, hailing the move as "a triumph for consensus between the sides."

The exchange clears the way for formal talks to open Tuesday in the Ecuadoran capital Quito.

The ELN, or National Liberation Army, is the last active rebel group in a country torn for more than half a century by a conflict that has killed more than 260,000 people and left 60,000 missing.

President Juan Manuel Santos is trying to end the fighting for good. He won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his efforts.

His government is currently implementing a historic peace deal with the country's largest rebel group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

"This conflict is over," he said, as he opened a summit of Nobel Peace Prize winners in Bogota.

"We did it. What seemed impossible, we made possible," he said, vowing the ELN talks would lead to "complete peace."

Sanchez voluntarily went into ELN custody last year to take the place of his brother Patrocinio, a former governor who had fallen ill after three years in captivity.

Patrocinio grew emotional talking about his brother's sacrifice, in an interview with AFP ahead of his release.

"It was very brave," he said.

"I spent more than two years with my hands and feet chained, in an airtight room in total darkness."

The ELN accuses the powerful Sanchez family of backing right-wing paramilitary groups in the Choco region, their political stronghold.

Patrocinio denied that claim, saying the ELN really only wanted ransom money. He said multiple ransom payments had been made, but declined to say how much.

Despite the hostage release, the negotiations look set to be tricky.

They will mark the fifth attempt to make peace with the ELN.

Both the FARC and ELN formed in 1964, and have funded themselves with ransom kidnappings and drug trafficking.

Incidents involving ELN forces have kept tensions high in recent months.

On Tuesday the rebels announced a new hostage seizure, a Colombian soldier they captured last week. The government condemned the abduction.

The peace process also faces ongoing resistance from conservative opponents who accuse Santos of granting impunity to rebels guilty of war crimes.

Santos had to revise the FARC accord after voters narrowly rejected it in a referendum last October.

Colombia's territorial and ideological conflict has drawn in dozens of guerrilla and paramilitary groups, drug gangs and state forces over the decades.

Rights groups say massacres, rapes and other atrocities have been committed on all sides.

A teachers' union in western Venezuela alleged on Thursday that the ELN had been luring Venezuelan minors with gifts to try to recruit them to its ranks in an area around the two countries' border.</s>BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — Colombia's second-largest rebel group on Thursday freed a captive former congressman whose release was a key condition for the start of peace talks with the government.

The National Liberation Army turned Odin Sanchez over to a humanitarian commission including members of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Sanchez was expected to be welcomed as a hero in his native Quibdo, in western Colombia, for his brave decision last April to swap himself for his ailing brother, who had been taken captive by the ELN a few months earlier.

"I've always been free spiritually," said Sanchez, apparently good health, in televised comments from the jungle hideout where he boarded a helicopter to freedom.

President Juan Manuel Santos has made Sanchez's release a condition for starting long-delayed peace talks with the group known as the ELN. A peace deal with the much larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia is now being implemented.

"The road to starting the negotiations and having a complete peace is now clear," Santos, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, said at a conference in Bogota with fellow laureates.

The ELN and government have been holding exploratory peace talks for more than three years. Almost a year ago they announced the start of formal negotiations.

But those talks were frozen before getting off the ground after the ELN announced last April it was holding Sanchez, who had agreed to a shocking swap to free his ailing brother, who had been taken captive by the guerrillas a few months earlier.

Last month, the government and ELN hammered out a deal to start peace talks with the rebels committing to free Sanchez in exchange for the government's releasing of two jailed ELN leaders, which took place simultaneously Thursday.

With both sides having apparently fulfilled their commitments, the public phase of the peace process is set to begin next week in Ecuador.

Nobody is expecting a quick deal however.

While much smaller than the FARC, the Cuban-inspired ELN is seen as more ideologically entrenched and has a decentralized decision-making structure that may make it harder to reach consensus among its 1,500 fighters.

Meanwhile the conflict continues to rage. Last week the ELN captured an off-duty soldier, accusing him of spying on the rebel group.</s>Colombia's second-biggest rebel group, the ELN, freed a politician it had held captive for almost 10 months on Thursday, meeting a government requirement for delayed peace talks with the group to begin.

The National Liberation Army released Odin Sanchez, 62, to the International Committee of the Red Cross, which will accompany him on a flight to Quibdo, in northwestern Choco province, a government official told reporters.

President Juan Manuel Santos had conditioned talks with the 2,000-strong ELN, considered a terrorist group by the United States and European Union, on freedom for its hostages. The group has kidnapped hundreds of people over its 52 years to raise funds for the war and to use as bargaining chips with the government.

Talks in Quito were delayed in November pending Sanchez's release and a government pardon for two jailed rebels. Sit-down negotiations are now set for February 7.

"We have complied and turned over Mr. Odin, we expect the same respect for his word from @JuanManSantos, may he hand over our pardoned," the ELN said in a tweet, referencing Santos.

The group later tweeted the two rebels had undergone a medical check and were released.

Santos signed a revised peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla group last year. Voters shockingly rejected the first version last month because they felt it was too lenient on the Marxist rebels.

The FARC agreement was lauded internationally. Santos won the 2016 Nobel Peace Prize last month for his efforts to end the conflict.

More than 220,000 people have been killed in Colombia's long-running armed conflict.

Founded by radical Catholic priests and inspired by Cuba's 1959 revolution, the ELN has been in on-and-off preliminary talks with the government since 2014.

The rebels have remained active during that time, kidnapping and bombing oil installations, though in recent months they have released other captives.

Sanchez has been referred to as the group's last remaining hostage, but many suspect it still holds unreported captives.

The talks with ELN would most likely mirror those held with FARC.

Peace with the two groups is unlikely to end violence in a country also ravaged by unrest from drug trafficking, but would allow economic development in once off-limits areas and shift more resources to fight growing criminal gangs.</s>After months of foot-dragging and doubts, Colombia's second-largest guerrilla group has released a key hostage, clearing the way for formal peace talks, President Juan Manuel Santos announced Thursday.

Speaking at a summit of Nobel Laureates that's being held in Bogotá, Santos confirmed that the National Liberation Army (ELN) had released former congressman Odín Sánchez, who had been kidnapped since April.

The government had been demanding his release as a prerequisite to starting peace talks with the ELN in neighboring Ecuador. Santos said those talks will begin on Tuesday.

The country is currently implementing a peace deal with the larger Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and the inclusion of the ELN is expected to strengthen that process.

Read More: The FARC’s last march

Expectations have been building about ELN talks since March 30, when the guerrillas and the government announced they had reached a framework agreement for conversations.</s>Colombia's second-largest rebel group on Thursday freed a captive former congressman whose release was a key condition for the start of peace talks with the government. The National Liberation Army turned Odin Sanchez over to a humanitarian commission including members of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Start the conversation, or Read more at Brandon Sun.</s>Colombia’s last-standing rebel group, the ELN, confirmed Wednesday that it would release a former congressman on Thursday, in time for peace talks to begin next week.

The announcement was made by “Ariel Uriel,” the commander of the Che Guevara Front, which has held former House Representative Odin Sanchez hostage in the jungles of the western Choco jungles since April last year.

The release of the politician was a condition for President Juan Manuel Santos to allow peace talks that are now set to begin on February 7 in the Ecuadorean capital Quito.

According to Uriel, the operation that will ultimately lead to the release of the politician has already begun and is accompanied by the International Committee of the Red Cross and six guarantor nations.

In order to allow the safe return of Sanchez, the military has ceased activity in an area the size of 50 square kilometers.

“On February 1, military operations were suspended and tomorrow the delegates from the six countries, two ELN peace delegates, one government delegate and two delegates of the Red Cross will come” to pick up the hostage, said the ELN chief.

The ELN has been fighting the state since 1964 in a multi-party war that has cost more than 265,000 lives and displaced approximately 7 million Colombians.

The group is the last original illegal armed actor in the 52-year war.

ELN vows to release kidnapped former congressman on Thursday was last modified: by</s>The Colombian government is to begin formal peace talks with the country's second largest rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), according to a joint statement on Wednesday in Venezuela's foreign ministry.

The talks, which will take place in Ecuador, could move Colombia a step closer to ending a five-decade conflict. They are separate from negotiations underway with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC. (Reporting by Eyanir Chinea; Writing by Girish Gupta; editing by Grant McCool)
The National Liberation Army releases former congressman Odin Sanchez, who had been held hostage by the rebel group since April 2016, paving the way for peace talks to begin between the rebels and the Colombian government next week in Ecuador.