A Red Cross team swooped by helicopter into the jungle of southern Colombia to pick up ex-governor Alan Jara and ferry him to the town of Villavicencio where he was hugged on the tarmac by his weeping wife and son.
"Today was a miracle and we need more miracles," Jara told reporters, looking thin and wearing a jungle hat and a backpack as he was hustled away with relatives.
The FARC freed three captive police officers and a soldier on Sunday and another handover is planned for later this week, fueling speculation that the weakened rebels want to recover political capital lost after a year of military setbacks.
Jara, a Liberal Party member, was last seen in photographs released a year ago along with letters from hostages describing suffering rebel punishments, long marches and jungle diseases after years in bug-infested camps.
Jara, who passed his captivity teaching English and Russian to other hostages, was abducted in 2001 when he was forced from a United Nations car by rebels who later accused him of ties to paramilitary death squads.
His kidnapping sparked international outrage but guerrilla leaders refused for years to release him. He was one of two remaining politicians being held captive and was part of a group of around 20 high-profile hostages that FARC leaders say they want to swap for jailed rebels.
Guerrillas plan later this week to release Sigifredo Lopez, the only surviving member of a group of captive local lawmakers who were shot to death while in FARC captivity.
Jara's handover was delayed by a day after President Alvaro Uribe's government and a civilian commission who brokered Sunday's handover sparred over accusations military aircraft had pursued them. The government denied the charges.
Begun in the 1960s as a Marxist peasant army, the FARC has been sapped by desertions and the loss of top commanders as Uribe's U.S.-backed military retakes parts of the Andean country once plagued by bombings and massacres.
Violence and kidnapping have eased, but the FARC remains a potent force. Rebels still hold scores of hostages for extortion and political leverage and were blamed for two urban bombings over the last week that killed at least four people.
