DNA Tests Show Foster Child is Hostage's Son

The Colombian government yesterday released DNA results which it said prove that a three-year-old boy born in captivity to a hostage held by leftist rebels has been living in foster care in Bogotá since 2005.

The news is a boost for president Alvaro Uribe and a setback for the Farc guerrillas, who had claimed they were still holding the boy. Tests on the child all but proved he was the boy known as Emmanuel, who was born in captivity to a hostage mother and guerrilla father some time in 2004. Officials said there was a "very high probability" that the foster child, Juan David, was in fact the son of Clara Rojas, a politician kidnapped in 2002.

"The scientific conclusion is that there is a higher probability that Juan David is a member of the family of [Rojas' mother] than of any other family," the chief federal prosecutor, Mario Iguáran, told reporters in the northern city of Santa Marta.

The boy's genetic markers had "highly specific traits" in common with Rojas's mother, Iguáran said. He said the tests, carried out in Bogotá, will be verified in Spain. Until the results are confirmed, the boy will stay in the custody of child protection services.

Emmanuel's tale has gripped Colombia, but despite optimism that the child may now be safe, the revelation may do little to help the plight of more than 40 other people held captive for years by Farc.

Yesterday's disclosure was an acute embarrassment for the guerrillas, who had promised to release the child last month as a goodwill gesture, and are now expected to resume their uncompromising stance.

Farc announced in early December they would hand over the boy, his mother and a third hostage, Consuelo Gonzalez, to representatives of the Venezuelan government.

After repeated delays it suspended the release on December 31, claiming military operations prevented the safe transfer of the hostages.

But the same day Uribe announced that the boy had been living with a foster family in Bogotá.

Emmanuel's existence was first reported by a Colombian journalist in 2006. He is believed to have been born of a liaison between Rojas and an unknown guerrilla, who may have suffered the ultimate punishment for breaking a cardinal rule of the hostage takers and consorting with a captive.

According to media accounts, the child was raised by the rebels in jungle camps and was only occasionally allowed to see his mother.

There was no confirmation yesterday of how the child got to Bogotá. But it is widely believed that he was placed in the charge of an impoverished carpenter in a remote town on the edge of Colombia's jungles in 2005.

Because he suffered from leishmaniassis, a skin disease, the carpenter took him to hospital, where the child was placed in protective care, according to accounts leaked to the Colombian press. Given the name Juan David, the boy was transferred to Bogotá.

The carpenter, José Crisanto Gómez, reportedly told authorities that rebels had sought him out in early December 2007, ordering him to retrieve the child, and gave him a deadline of December 30. When he was unable to produce the boy the rebels sent death threats and he decided to go to the police. He and his family are now in protective custody.

Olga Lucía Gómez, (no relation) director of the País Libre Foundation, a group that monitors kidnapping in Colombia and helps families of victims, said she hoped Farc would not retaliate over the embarrassing revelation about the boy. "With more reason now, they should free his mother, and Consuelo," she said.

Although Farc had suspended the handover on Monday, the Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, who was leading the recovery operation, said his government's efforts would continue. However, when indications emerged that Farc was not holding the boy, Chávez said that if true "it would be overwhelming evidence of a lie, of a manipulation" by Farc.

"President Chávez now knows he can't believe so much in Farc but he should continue his efforts to free the hostages,' Ms Gómez said.