The Colombian authorities on Thursday accused the ELN guerrilla group, with which it’s in search of to barter peace, of kidnapping Liverpool winger Luis Diaz’s dad and mom of their house city final weekend.
Diaz’s mom Cilenis Marulanda was rescued hours after the kidnapping in Barrancas, however his father Luis Manuel Diaz has been lacking ever since.
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The crime “was perpetrated by a unit belonging to the ELN,” a authorities official stated on X, previously Twitter, including: “we demand the ELN immediately free” the lacking man, who native media say is 56 years outdated.
The ELN and the federal government of leftist President Gustavo Petro are within the midst of peace negotiations and a six-month ceasefire which entered into power in August.
The dad and mom of Colombia and Liverpool participant Diaz have been kidnapped Saturday by armed males on bikes at a gasoline station of their house city of 38,000 individuals within the northern La Guajira division.
Marulanda was rescued hours later and a large search operation was launched for her husband.
Colombian authorities have stated there was no ransom demand.
The ELN, or National Liberation Army, has not claimed duty for the kidnapping.
“We demand the ELN immediately free Luis Manuel Diaz,” stated Thursday’s assertion signed by Otty Patino, the top of the federal government delegation in peace talks with the ELN.
He added it was the ELN’s “responsibility to guarantee his life and integrity.”
Attorney General Francisco Barbosa has stated the older Diaz “could be” in Venezuela, with out giving additional particulars.
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Luis Manuel Diaz was an beginner coach on the solely soccer academy in Barrancas, a city close to the Venezuelan border, the place his son confirmed promise from a really younger age.
Dissidents of the FARC guerrilla group that disarmed in 2017 are additionally identified to be energetic on this distant a part of Colombia, as are paramilitary fighters and prison gangs.
Petro, a former city guerrilla himself, took workplace final August with the said aim of reaching “total peace” in a rustic ravaged by a long time of preventing between the safety forces, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
More than 38,000 individuals have been kidnapped in Colombia through the years, primarily by teams elevating funds with ransom cash.
The ELN, Colombia’s final acknowledged guerrilla group, began as a leftist ideological motion in 1964 earlier than turning to crime — specializing in kidnapping, extortion, violent assaults and drug trafficking.
With some 5,800 combatants, the group is primarily energetic within the Pacific area and alongside the two,200-kilometer (1,370-mile) border with Venezuela.
Official knowledge exhibits the ELN has a presence in additional than 200 municipalities the place preventing has displaced communities caught up within the violence.
“We remind the ELN that kidnapping is a criminal practice, in violation of international humanitarian law, and that it is its duty (within the context of) the current peace process not only to stop the practice but also to eliminate it forever,” stated Patino.
The elder Diaz is credited with aiding the meteoric rise of the Liverpool and Colombia striker referred to as Lucho.
Acquaintances have advised AFP that he generally offered meals he cooked himself to pay for his son’s journeys to Barranquilla, the town the place he had his debut with the soccer membership Junior.
The youthful Diaz, who has not spoken publicly in regards to the kidnapping, has performed for his nation 43 instances and arrived at Liverpool final yr from Portuguese membership Porto.
He has performed 11 video games with Liverpool and scored three objectives, and is the primary Indigenous Colombian to make it to world soccer’s prime echelons.
Colombian police have provided a reward equal to about $48,000 for data that leads them to Diaz and his captors.
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated news company feed – AFP)
Source: www.news18.com
