Colombia's FARC guerrillas on Tuesday freed two soldiers captured in combat, the first step in a hostage release deal aimed at reviving suspended peace talks.
The soldiers, 24-year-old Paulo Cesar Rivera and 23-year-old Jonathan Andres Diaz, were handed over to the Red Cross in a rural area of Arauca, the western department where they were captured, the government said in a statement.
They underwent a quick medical check and were transferred by helicopter to an airport in the town of Tame.
"We're happy these two people will soon be able to return home, where their families are waiting for them," said Christoph Harmisch, head of the Red Cross in Colombia.
The soldiers' release is part of an agreement to salvage a peace process derailed by the FARC's capture of General Ruben Alzate on November 16.
Alzate, the highest-ranking officer captured by the leftist rebels in 50 years of conflict, is due to be released later this week.
His capture caused President Juan Manuel Santos to call off the two-year-old peace talks, the most promising effort yet to end the conflict.
Under a deal announced last Wednesday, the FARC promised to release him along with a corporal and an adviser captured with him plus Rivera and Diaz, who were taken prisoner during a clash on November 9.
The Colombian conflict has killed 220,000 people and caused more than five million to flee their homes since the FARC was founded in 1964 in the aftermath of a peasant uprising.
