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After 6 years, he flees captors

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 6, 2007

BOGOTA, Colombia - A former Cabinet minister emerged Friday from six years in rebel captivity and said he fled through the jungle for five days after Colombian troops attacked the guerrillas who held him.

Fernando Araujo, 51, said he escaped Sunday from a guerrilla camp as army and marine troops battled members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known as FARC. He then walked five days through the mountainous jungle to the hamlet of San Agustin, 350 miles north of Bogota, where soldiers found him.

"When the gunfight began, I told myself either I go now or they kill me," Araujo told RCN television Friday before being reunited with his family in the Caribbean coastal city of Cartagena.

Araujo said that he was suffering from hiccups and exhaustion because he had not eaten in five days but that he was otherwise in good health.

President Alvaro Uribe applauded the action of his troops and said an informant's tip led the military to the guerrilla camp. He said Araujo's family authorized the decision to launch the raid.

Araujo served as development minister under President Andres Pastrana, who was elected in 1998. He was kidnapped Dec. 5, 2000, while exercising in Cartagena.

A marine and six guerrillas died in the battle to free Araujo, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos said.

Araujo said he was the only hostage at the camp and knew nothing about the fate of some 60 other political prisoners, some held for a decade. The FARC hopes to swap these prisoners for hundreds of jailed rebels.

[Last modified January 6, 2007, 00:30:28]