In May 2016, ELN fighters in Filogringo kidnapped Spanish journalist Salud Hernandez, subsequently grabbing several Colombian reporters who came to the area to cover the initial abduction.
Dutch national broadcaster NOS reported that Bolt told a radio station in Colombia that he and Follender were treated well by their captors.
The volatile Catatumbo region in northeast Colombia where the journalists were held is one of the country's most lawless areas, a major transit zone for drug trafficking to neighboring Venezuela and historically one of the ELN's strongholds.
Bolt and Follender were seized nearly a week ago by members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) while reporting in the volatile Catatumbo region near Colombia's border with Venezuela. "We are very happy that they can go home".
Last year, the ELN held three journalists in the same region for nearly a week.
Villamizar said the military and the ELN had been asked to reduce their operations in the area "so as not to endanger the lives of the Dutch journalists" in order for them to be released safely.
He said: "Bolt was. very relieved. We are doing all we can to bring them back to the Netherlands as soon as possible".
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Tillerson stressed the need to choke off funding sources including money laundering, labor export and computer hacking. Trump blasted the "brutal regime" of North Korea and described the young man's death as a "total disgrace".
Both Bolt and Follender work for a Dutch television program called Spoorloos, which helps people trace biological relatives worldwide while documenting the process for the show. In the Netherlands, a Dutch foreign ministry spokeswoman told AFP she was not able to confirm the release.
People protest against the kidnapping of Dutch journalists Derk Johannes Bolt and Eugenio Ernest Marie in Bogota, Colombia June 21, 2017.
It was feared the kidnappings could disrupt peace talks the left-wing ELN is holding with the government.
Unlike the FARC, which has a cohesive, centralized command structure, leaders of the more ideological, Cuban revolution-inspired ELN have had trouble keeping tabs on their troops.
"The release does not affect the dialogue being carried out with the ELN", he said.
"Our first duty is to preserve the lives of the communities and people who enter these territories", the group said.
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