Venezuela's Chavez begins Colombia hostage mission

CARACAS, (Reuters) - Venezuela's leftist President Hugo Chavez sent two helicopters into Colombia Friday to start a sensitive mission to collect two women politicians and a young boy held hostage for years by Marxist guerrillas.

Speaking at a military base as the helicopters took off, Chavez said the main rescue operation had been delayed until the weekend because the rebels had not yet told him the precise location of their captives.

"We have a little problem," said Chavez, a former paratrooper, as he crouched over a map, dressed in military fatigues and a red beret. "There is bad weather, they are traveling and they have difficulty communicating in the jungle."

Chavez had earlier said Consuelo Gonzalez, Clara Rojas and her son Emmanuel could be free within hours. Emmanuel, whose father is a guerrilla fighter, was born in a rebel camp in the jungle and is thought to be four years old.

Although wary of the fiery Chavez, Colombia's conservative government has agreed to let him fly Venezuelan aircraft painted with the colors of the Red Cross deep into its territory to collect the hostages.

The left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, holds hundreds of hostages, including politicians, soldiers and police as part of a long war against the state.

SOCIALIST

Rebel leaders control large areas of Colombia's remote jungle regions. They recently agreed to hand over three of the captives to Chavez, who is a fierce critic of the United States and is pushing through socialist reforms in Venezuela.

As the mission began, Chavez toured the air force base close to the Colombian border with foreign envoys including former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner, who will take part in the main rescue party over the weekend.

U.S. filmmaker Oliver Stone, who is making a documentary about Latin America, was also present and will travel with the air convoy to Colombia Saturday. He said he was a fan of Chavez and called him a "great man."

The Venezuelan helicopters will first fly to the central Colombian town of Villavicencio and from there to a still unknown meeting point to pick up the captives. Rough terrain, communications problems and poor weather conditions could cause further delays.

Chavez will not take part in the rescue party, but will receive the freed hostages at the military base, where relatives are also expected to gather.

Rojas was captured in 2002 when she was running for vice-president and Gonzalez, a former lawmaker, was snatched the year before.

Despite recently telling Chavez to stay out of hostage negotiations with the guerrillas, President Alvaro Uribe this week authorized the rescue mission.

The release could help pave the way for the freeing of other rebel-held captives, including French-Colombian politician and former Colombian presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, in exchange for jailed guerrillas.

It would also give Chavez a significant victory just weeks after he lost a referendum vote that would have allowed him to run for reelection indefinitely and given him sweeping powers to accelerate his socialist revolution in Venezuela.

Tensions between Chavez and Uribe still run high. Colombia said Venezuela only has until Sunday afternoon to rescue the hostages although Chavez said he was unaware of a time limit.

The FARC took up arms four decades ago and says it is fighting for social justice, but it has increasingly used kidnapping and cocaine trafficking to finance its war. (Additional reporting by Hugh Bronstein in Bogota; Editing by Kieran Murray)