FARC hostages released

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Colombia's FARC rebels on Monday (April 2) freed 10 members of the armed forces held hostage in jungle prison camps for more than a decade, the last of a group of captives the drug-funded group has held as bargaining chips to pressure the government.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia released four soldiers and six police officials to a humanitarian mission led by the International Red Cross.

The freed captives were picked up in a helicopter supplied by Brazil and flown from a remote area that straddles the southern provinces of Meta and Guaviare, according to the Red

Cross. They will be flown to the city of Villavicencio, in central Meta province, before heading to Bogota.

The release could signal a tentative step toward peace negotiations to end Latin America's oldest insurgency after five decades of killing civilians and destroying infrastructure.

But many Colombians remain skeptical that the guerrilla group, which is still believed to be holding some 700 civilian hostages, will lay down its weapons after having taken advantage of previous peace talks to strengthen their forces.