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Brazilian soldiers pose in front of a helicopter at the start of the airborne operation to pick up the councilman of San Jose del Guaviare, Marcos Vaquero --abducted by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guerrillas in June 2009--, on February 9, 2011, in Villavicencio, Meta department, Colombia. Two Brazilian military helicopters bearing Red Cross markings are being used to fly out five hostages set for release by the Marxist rebels.EITAN ABRAMOVICH/AFP / Getty Images

Colombia's FARC rebels have handed over a kidnapped local politician, the first of five hostages they plan to release in the next week, the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday.

The FARC, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, has for several years freed a few of its kidnap victims each year, but the government demands they release all hostages and cease hostilities before any talks to end the country's long war.

Rebels freed Marcos Baquero, a local councilman who was snatched 19 months ago. A Red Cross team and a former leftist Colombian senator flew by helicopter into the jungle to bring Baquero back to Villavicencio, 70 kilometres southeast of the capital Bogota.

"At this moment a helicopter ... is carrying Marcos Baquero to the city of Villavicencio, where he will be reunited with his family after a separation of a year and seven months," the Red Cross said in a statement.

The FARC are still holding around 16 police and soldiers for political leverage, some captive for more than a decade in secret camps. Rebels plan to free another local politician and three military officials over the next week.

Latin America's oldest insurgency, the FARC was once a huge rebel army controlling large parts of Colombia. But guerrillas have been battered by a U.S.-backed security drive since 2002 that has forced them into remote mountains and jungles.

Urban attacks, bombings and kidnappings have dropped off sharply in Colombia and foreign investment has risen five-fold to around $10 billion as violence has ebbed. But backed by profits from the cocaine trade, the FARC remains a potent force in poor, rural areas where state presence is weak.

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