Following a 13-day guerrilla group captivity in Colombia, the father of Liverpool football player Luis Díaz has been released.
Luis Díaz Sr. was turned up by members of the National Liberation Army (ELN) to the UN and the Catholic church on Thursday afternoon, putting an end to nearly two weeks of global speculation about his location and mounting fears for his safety.
On October 28, in the northern Colombian state of La Guajira, Díaz Sr. and his wife were abducted by armed men from their hometown of Barrancas. Hours later, the footballer's mother Cilenis Marulanda was set free, but Díaz Sr. was taken away on a motorcycle.
Local sources claimed that the mafia in the area had kidnapped him, but on November 2, a delegation of government representatives dealing with armed organisations disclosed that he was being kept captive by the ELN, the nation's oldest operational guerrilla force.
On Thursday, Díaz Sr. was seen by local television channels at an airfield in Valledupar, in the Cesar department of Colombia, following his descent from a helicopter.
In a statement, the government's negotiating delegation to the peace negotiations with the ELN expressed celebration for the liberation and confirmed that Díaz Sr. was safe, but added that the kidnapping "should never have happened."
“The current process with the ELN has advanced like no other until today. Regardless, our delegation considers that the kidnapping of Luis Manuel Díaz has placed our dialogue in a critical situation and because of it, the time has come to take decisions to eliminate kidnapping,” the statement said.
On November 2, ELN officials promised to release the 56-year-old, sparking anticipation of his quick release. However, Díaz's family, Colombians, and football fans worldwide had to wait nearly another week for word of his liberation.
Gustavo Petro, the president of Colombia, had earlier chastised the armed rebels for endangering Díaz's life needlessly and undermining peace talks with the government.
“There is a willingness expressed by the [ELN’s leadership] to release him as soon as possible but the hours pass and, as time passes, the circumstances in which Mr Diaz is in become very dangerous,” Petro told journalists in Washington DC last Friday.
As concerns for Díaz's safety increased this week, his family requested confirmation that he was still alive.
The Colombian military has been searching a mountain range that borders Venezuela for clues concerning Diaz's whereabouts; the ELN has accused them of causing the delays.
It is not yet clear who brokered his freedom and whether the armed rebels received payment in exchange for freeing him.
Díaz Jr., who cost €40 million to acquire from Porto, became one of Liverpool's most gifted players and the star of the Colombian national team very fast. With injury time equaliser against Luton on Sunday, the 26-year-old made his Liverpool comeback after missing matches against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest.
Due to the ELN's role in Díaz Sr.'s abduction, the world is now aware of the guerrillas' breaches of human rights, and peace talks with armed groups in Colombia run the risk of being derailed. In June of this year, the government and the ELN came to an agreement on a six-month ceasefire, with the ELN promising not to hold civilians hostage.
Sergio Guzmán, the director of Colombia Risk Analysis, said: “The kidnapping of the parents of one of Colombia’s soccer stars and most beloved public figures undermines credibility in the peace process, undermines the credibility of the ELN and worsens the government’s ability to sell Total Peace as a credible alternative to Colombia’s long history of violence and conflict.”
