BOGOTA , Colombia -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- Preliminary DNA tests indicate a 3-year-old foster child is the son of a woman being held captive by leftist rebels , Colombian officials announced Friday . Clara Rojas appears in a video released by the kidnappers in July 2002 . `` There is a very high probability that Juan David belongs to the family of Clara Gonzalez de Rojas , '' Mario Iguaran Arana , the country 's chief federal prosecutor , said at a news conference . The boy , known as `` Emmanuel , '' has been at the center of a hostage drama that raised hopes the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia would liberate some of their hostages . The rebel group , known as FARC for its Spanish acronym , had agreed to release three hostages as part of a deal brokered by Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez . FARC said it would release Emmanuel along with his mother , Clara Rojas , and another woman , Consuelo Gonzalez , but the mission to free the captives fell apart December 31 , when the rebel group said it could not release the hostages because of Colombian military operations in the area , according to a FARC statement Chavez read on Venezuelan television . Colombian President Alvaro Uribe denied the group 's assertion , saying there were no combat operations in the area near the rebels , and he said the rebels could not release the three hostages because they did not have Emmanuel in custody . He raised the possibility that Emmanuel , who was born in captivity to Rojas , was living in a foster home in the Colombian capital of Bogota . Authorities in Colombia suspect the FARC duped child-welfare authorities by presenting the boy as a child in need of foster care in 2005 , he said . On Friday , Iguaran Arana said initial DNA results will be checked against tests being done in European labs to verify the child 's identity . There was no immediate response from Venezuela after the announcement concerning Emmanuel 's DNA . However , a statement on the Venezuelan government 's Web site from earlier Friday said the Colombian government had not allowed Venezuela to participate in the DNA testing . Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party , FARC is Colombia 's oldest , largest , most capable and best-equipped Marxist rebel group , according to the U.S. Department of State . The United States , the European Union and Colombia classify it as a terrorist group . FARC has justified hostage-taking as a legitimate military tactic in a long-running and complex civil war that also has involved right-wing paramilitary units , government forces and drug traffickers . Fighting has waned , but not stopped , in recent years . Among the group 's hostages are three American contractors who were captured when their plane went down in 2003 during a drug-eradication flight , and Ingrid Betancourt , a French-Colombian independent presidential candidate who was kidnapped in 2002 . Rojas was kidnapped in 2002 while she managed Betancourt 's campaign . Betancourt is perhaps the best-known captive in Colombia , a country plagued by kidnapping . E-mail to a friend