Between tears, Luis Manuel Diaz, father of Liverpool striker Luis Diaz, recounted Friday how he was made to walk “too much” with little sleep in the nearly two weeks he was held hostage in a mountainous area of Colombia by members of the ELN guerrilla group.
Despite it all, Diaz said he will keep living in Colombia after enduring nearly two weeks of captivity by guerrillas, marked by sleepless nights and exhausting days of horseback riding through the mountains.
Luis Manuel Diaz, 58, was released on Thursday by the leftist National Liberation Army (ELN) 12 days after he was taken hostage on Oct. 28 in Barrancas, a rural municipality where he lives in the northern province of La Guajira.
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Diaz’s wife Cilenis Marulanda, who was taken by the same ELN kidnappers on October 28 but rescued hours later, rubbed her husband’s back lovingly as he broke down in tears mid-statement.
Behind the pair hung a string of golden balloons spelling out “Welcome Mane,” his nickname, in Spanish.
Diaz walked with obvious difficulty as he arrived for the press conference, and had to be helped up from his chair afterwards and led away.
He told reporters he was not maltreated by his captors.
Diaz’s capture stoked criticism of ongoing peace talks between the ELN and the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro, who is trying to put an end to Colombia’s six-decade internal conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead.
The ELN, which is in peace negotiations with the government and is party to a six-month ceasefire that entered into force in August, described the kidnapping by one of its units as a “mistake.”
“My aspirations are to continue in my town because I have my entire family in my town,” Diaz said at a press conference.
“The government has given me impressively strong and great support. I trust and have faith that it will provide me security to be in Barrancas.”
On Thursday, after days of intense negotiations, the rebels handed Diaz over to humanitarian workers at an undisclosed location in the Serrania del Perija mountain range, from where he was flown by helicopter to the city of Valledupar, some 90 kilometers (55 miles) from his hometown.
Hours later, he arrived by car to neighbors celebrating with drums and trumpet music outside his home, which was under police guard.
On Friday, Diaz told reporters he hoped his release was a step towards “peace in Colombia and so that everyone, and all the hostages, will have a chance to be free.”
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The abduction threatened to derail high-stakes peace negotiations between the ELN and the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro.
The kidnapping underscored the lack of control that the ELN’s top brass exerts over their rank and file, according to analysts and security sources.
The ELN, made up of 5,800 members, including some 2,800 combatants, is considered a terrorist organization by the United States and the European Union.
The rebel group is accused of financing itself through kidnapping, in addition to drug trafficking, illegal mining and extortion.
On Friday, the group’s top commander, Antonio Garcia, said on social media that the peace negotiations did not prohibit kidnappings as a means of financing.
Luis Manuel Diaz is the founder and amateur coach of the only football academy in Barrancas, where his son showed promise from a very young age.
Diaz Sr. is credited with aiding the meteoric rise of his son who has played for his country 43 times and is the first Indigenous Colombian to make it to world football’s top echelons.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – AFP)