CARACAS (AFP) - US film director Oliver Stone said Friday he would travel with a Venezuelan-led air mission going to Colombia to pick up three hostages being released by Marxist rebels.
"Its wonderful," the Oscar-winning filmmaker said in Santo Domingo airport in southwest Venezuela, from where a first air convoy left for Colombia on Friday. "Ive never been in such a thing and Im proud to be part of this."
Stone said he was in Venezuela to film a documentary about Latin America and North America, but he refused to say whether he would film the actual rescue of the hostages, two women and a three-year-old boy.
Stone heaped praise on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who spearheaded the mission after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) announced on December 18 they would release the hostages to him or someone he designates.
"Its a beautiful, great process," Stone said, calling the Venezuelan leader "a great man." "Im a fan (of Chavez)."
Stone arrived in Santo Domingo with Chavez aboard the presidential jet, along with envoys from nations involved in the mission, including France, Switzerland and Latin American countries.
Chavez had said in September that Stone, the director of Vietnam war dramas "Platoon" and "Born on the Fourth of July," voiced interest in making a documentary about Colombias hostage crisis.
FARC are expected to release former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez de Perdomo, 57; Clara Rojas, 44; and Emmanuel, 3, the son Rojas bore to a rebel in captivity. The women were snatched in 2001 and 2002 respectively.
Chavez said he hoped the handover could take place on Saturday.
