The Colombian leftist guerrilla forces known as the FARC has been holding hundreds of hostages, both Colombians and foreigners. Swedish Erik Ronald Larsson, the last foreigner who was kidnapped in Colombia by the FARC, has regained his freedom from the rural area of Tierradentro in the northwest province of Cordoba. Larsson, a forestry engineer who is almost a septuagenarian, was kidnapped by the FARC on May 17, 2007.

According to sources, the Swedish national was released by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) due to his failing health. He was immediately admitted to a hospital in Montería after having been handed by a guerrilla to a committee of the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), the state intelligence group.

Larsson was kidnapped by a group of rebels from the main Colombian guerrilla forces while he was in his farm near the village of Tierralta Córdoba. He used to work with the Swedish company Skanska in the construction of the Urra hydroelectric power in the region. After his retirement, he decided to stay and live on his farm.

Before Larsson, the Colombian army rescued Americans Keith Stansell, Marc Gonsalves, and Thomas Howes in July 2 last year in an operation against the FARC. Also freed in the same operation known as “Checkmate” were former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt and eleven members of the army and police.

Colombian President Alvaro Uribe has been enjoying a 70 percent approval rating after six years in power due to his supposed crackdown on the FARC which some concerned groups have disclosed as padded figures from FARC neutralization reports.

The FARC has grown to be a seemingly unsolvable problem in Latin America, especially after it turned to typical banditry and drug trafficking. The biggest mass grave in Colombia was recently discovered to contain 1,150 corpses. The bodies could have been buried between 2002 and 2005 supposedly by FARC guerrillas. In early March, four tons of explosives that had been abandoned by the FARC were confiscated by the Colombian army.

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Via CNN