Between tears, Luis Manuel Diaz, father of Liverpool striker Luis Diaz, on Friday recounted 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 National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla group.
Luis Manuel Diaz, finally liberated on Thursday after calls from around the world for his freedom, told reporters at his home in the country’s north he went through a “very difficult” time, surviving “almost 12 days without sleep.”
Luis Manuel Diaz’s wife Cilenis Marulanda, who was taken by the same ELN kidnappers on Oct. 28 but rescued hours later, rubbed her husband’s back lovingly as he broke down in tears mid-statement.
Photo: AFP
Behind the pair hung a string of golden balloons spelling out “Welcome Mane,” his nickname, in Spanish.
Luis Manuel Diaz walked with obvious difficulty as he arrived for the news conference, and had to be helped up from his chair afterward and led away.
He told reporters that he was not maltreated by his captors.
“I had to walk too much, up and down many mountains, trying to stay safe so that... I could return home,” said the 56-year-old, who is no stranger to the mountainous region he has explored since a child.
Yet “this was a different story,” he said. “I would not want anyone to be in that mountain in the situation I was in.”
Luis Diaz’s parents were abducted by armed men on motorcycles at a gas station in Barrancas, a town near Colombia’s border with Venezuela.
Marulanda was rescued hours later and a massive search operation by ground and air was launched for her husband, with more than 250 soldiers involved.
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.”
On Thursday, after days of intense negotiations, the rebels handed Luis Manuel 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, about 90km 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, Luis Manuel Diaz told reporters he hoped his release was a step toward “peace in Colombia, and so that everyone, and all the hostages, will have a chance to be free.”
The abduction threatened to derail high-stakes peace negotiations between the ELN and the government of Colombian President Gustavo Petro.
Petro took office in August last year with the stated goal of achieving “total peace” in a country ravaged by decades of fighting between the security forces, leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and drug gangs.
More than 38,000 people have been kidnapped in Colombia over the years, mainly by armed groups raising funds with ransom money.
The ELN still holds about 30 hostages, according to official data.
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