Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made a public appeal to the head of Colombia's FARC guerrillas on Saturday to release high-profile French-Colombian hostage Ingrid Betancourt.

"From here I send a request to Manuel Marulanda. Manuel Marulanda, send us Ingrid. Send us Ingrid. On this International Women's Day, I expressly ask you to do it," Chavez said in a speech during a Women's Day ceremony in Caracas.

"When you can, when the conditions make it possible, liberate Ingrid Betancourt. She's the only woman who is still in the hands of the FARC. It doesn't make sense to keep her in the jungles of Colombia," Chavez said to a cheering audience of women, including Betancourt's mother.