Recently freed Colombian hostage Clara Rojas was reunited with her son Emmanuel on Sunday, while a child welfare agency granted her full custody of the 3-year-old child, media reported.
Rojas gave birth to Emmanuel in 2004 when she was a captive of the FARC rebel army, but the guerrillas took the child away when he was 8 months old.
Accompanied by her aging mother and brother, Rojas returned to Bogota on Sunday nearly six years after she was kidnapped. She then paid a private visit to the boy in a foster home, with a photo of him hanging around her neck.
The meeting between mother and son lasted about two hours. A government official said it was "a very emotional moment."
"I am extremely moved to be back in my land. ... I feel like I've been reborn, I am back to life," Rojas said. But she added: "This is not a total happiness because many (hostages) remain and we are waiting for them."
On the same day, a director of Colombia's child welfare agency said it has granted Rojas full custody of Emmanuel.
"Emmanuel must be with his mother," Elvira Forero, the head of the Child Welfare Institute of Colombia, told reporters. "He must enjoy this right that has been taken away from him by the FARC."
After he was taken away from his mother, Emmanuel was handed to Colombian social services with a broken arm and leishmaniasis -- a parasitic disease that causes fever, coughing and diarrhea. He was then placed in the foster home in the capital, Bogota, where he has been for the past two years, with his true identity remaining unaware.
Shortly before Rojas' release, authorities discovered Emmanuel living in the foster home, and guessed his identity based on what little was known about him, including that he had a fractured arm. DNA tests later confirmed their suspicions.
Rojas, a former vice-presidential candidate, was released with former congresswoman Consuelo Gonzalez on Thursday in a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
She said she did not know the whereabouts of the boy's father.
Source:Xinhua
|
Comment
Tell A Friend
Print Format
Save Article