France offers to admit Farc rebels
Prisoners released as part of a hostage exchange deal could be housed in France.
Rojas was captured along with Ingrid Betancourt, a French-Colombian presidential candidate, in 2002.
Prisoner exchange
Farc has previously offered to release 46 hostages, including Betancourt and three US defence contractors, in return for the release of hundreds of imprisoned rebels.
Dozens of people including police officers, former members of congress and provincial governors are being held by the group.
Last year, Jorge Enrique Botero, a Colombian journalist, said in a book that Rojas had given birth to a baby boy, Emmanuel, after a relationship with one of her captors.
| “This is the moment I have waited for” Clara Gonzalez, mother of Clara Rojas |
Her mother Clara Gonzalez told local radio: “This is the moment I have waited for”.
Chavez confirmed that he had been told by Farc that the group was planning to release some hostages.
“This appears to be a nice Christmas gift, especially for the families of these people,” he said.
Colombia’s government said it was reserving judgment on the Farc statement.
Earlier this year, Chavez was asked to try to secure the release of 47 hostages held by Farc, but his mediation was called off after a dispute with Alvaro Uribe, Colombia’s president.
Fillon said that the help of Latin American leaders could prove useful in securing the release of the hostages, but he stopped short of calling on Bogota to reverse its decision on Chavez’s mediation.
“Of course, we respect the sovereignty of every state and that of Colombia in particular,” he said.
Uribe recently offered rebels a temporary meeting zone for negotiations in the latest attempt to break the deadlock.
Uribe has repeatedly rejected this proposal but news of the hostage release may renew pressure on him to relent.