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Liverpool striker Luis Diaz’s father was freed on Thursday by members of a guerrilla group who kidnapped him in northern Colombia, the government said, ending 12 days of torment for the family.
The kidnapping of Luis Manuel Díaz on October 28 in the small town of Barrancas temporarily attracted foreign attention and called for his release. On Sunday, the younger Diaz pleaded for his father’s freedom after scoring for Liverpool in a Premier League soccer match, unveiling a T-shirt that read “Libertad para papá” in Spanish.
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The release of members of the National Liberation Army (ELN), who described the kidnapping as a mistake, was announced through the government delegation that has recently been conducting peace negotiations with the guerrillas.
A photograph later released through the Colombian Catholic Church, which helped facilitate the release, showed Diaz’s father dressed in a Chicago Bulls baseball cap, gray blouse and jacket.
“It’s been a really scary few days, with a lot of uncertainty,” Alfonso Diaz, a cousin of Luis Manuel Diaz, told The Associated Press. “But with religion set on God for the best outcome, because our family doesn’t deserve an attack of this magnitude. “
At first it was not known who had committed the kidnapping. But the Colombian government announced last week that it had information that Díaz had been kidnapped by an ELN unit. Subsequently, the ELN declared the kidnapping, saying it was a mistake and that the group had ordered the release of Díaz Sr.
An ELN said on Sunday that the planned release had been hampered by army deployments in northern Colombia and may not guarantee a safe release under the circumstances. The Colombian military announced on Monday that it was changing its position to facilitate his release.
Diaz’s two parents, from Liverpool, were kidnapped by gunmen on a motorcycle at a gas station in Barrancas. But the footballer’s mother, Cilenis Marulanda, was rescued within hours by police, who set up barricades around the city of 40,000 people, located near the Colombia-Venezuela border.
After the kidnapping, special forces were deployed to search for Diaz’s father in a mountainous area straddling the two countries and covered by a cloud forest. Police had also offered a $48,000 reward for information leading to him.
Diaz’s father won Thursday through representatives of the United Nations and the Catholic Church in the Sierra de Serranía del Perijá area, where he was ranked number one in medical care.
He then flew by helicopter to Valledupar, a network about 90 kilometers from Barrancas, his hometown in the northeast of the country.
The 26-year-old striker is one of the top players in the Colombian national team. He arrived at Liverpool for a fee of $67 million.
The team tweeted that they were “thrilled with the news” of Diaz’s father’s release. The striker has been included in the line-up for the team’s Europa League match against Toulouse on Thursday.
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