(In 8th paragraph "Jhon" is correct)

By Hugh Bronstein

BOGOTA, Dec 27 (Reuters) - Former Colombian vice presidential candidate Clara Rojas could be freed along with her young son as early as Thursday, almost six years after she was captured by Marxist rebels and held in jungle camps.

The government has backed Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez's plan for Venezuelan aircraft to pick up Rojas in Colombian territory along with another kidnapped politician and the son Rojas bore to one of her guerrilla captors.

The planes and helicopters, painted with Red Cross symbols according to the agreement, will take the three to Venezuela to meet with left-winger Chavez, who is authorized by the Marxist guerrillas to receive the hostages.

Chavez hopes to win their release as early as Thursday but Yves Heller, spokesman for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Colombia, said it could take longer.

"There are quite a few logistical and security details to be figured out. We are doing everything we can to ensure that the hand-over takes place as soon as possible," he said.

Rojas' child, Emmanuel, is thought to be three or four years old and has come to symbolize the young victims of a war in which thousands of peasants are killed or displaced every year as militias fight to control cocaine-producing land.

His name and the other details of his existence under guard in the Colombian wilderness were revealed earlier this year by a former police officer who escaped the rebels after eight years in captivity, sometimes in the same camps as Rojas.

The former officer, Jhon Frank Pinchao, says the hostages are held in rough conditions, often restrained, fed poorly and pestered by insects.

Rojas, a center-left politician now 44 years old, was snatched during her 2002 campaign along with her running mate, presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt, who is still languishing in captivity.

Chavez said on Wednesday that the operation, in which former lawmaker Consuelo Gonzalez is also to be handed over by the rebels, could be launched within hours of Colombia's agreement to the plan.

Chavez will send a convoy of Venezuelan planes and helicopters to the central Colombian town of Villavicencio at the foot of the Andes mountains and then dispatch helicopters to a still unknown meeting point to pick up the hostages.

Conservative Colombian President Alvaro Uribe last month told Chavez to stay out of hostage negotiations with the guerrillas but the anti-American firebrand kept talking with the outlawed Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC.

Chavez fell out with Uribe over the issue and threatened to halt trade with neighboring Colombia. But Uribe's government quickly backed Chavez's plan to organize the release of the three hostages.

It could help set the stage for an exchange of other high-profile kidnap victims, including Betancourt and three U.S. anti-drug contractors captured in 2003, for Colombian guerrillas held by the government.

The FARC has been pushed onto the defensive by Uribe's U.S.-backed military policies but it still controls wide rural areas and holds about 750 hostages for ransom and political leverage. (Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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