COLOMBIA
Father of Liverpool football star Luis Diaz reveals details of kidnapping

Sky News
Updated Sat, 11 November 2023



The father of Liverpool star Luis Diaz has revealed details of his captivity - and said he intends to keep living in Colombia despite his ordeal.

Luis Manuel Diaz was released on Thursday on Thursday after spending 12 days in the hands of guerrillas.

During a news conference, the 58-year-old said his kidnappers had advised him to remain calm.


He said he had "almost 12 days without sleep" and had to endure "a lot of quite difficult horseback riding, lots of mountains, rain".

"Even though the treatment was good, I didn't feel very comfortable," he said.

He and his wife were abducted by armed men on motorcycles at a petrol station in the town of Barrancas, near Colombia's border with Venezuela on 28 October.

The 26-year-old footballer's mother, Cilenis Marulanda, was rescued within hours by police after roadblocks were set up.

"My aspirations are to continue in my town because I have my entire family in my town," Mr Diaz said.

"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."

During his captivity special forces were deployed to search for Mr Diaz - with air and land patrols trawling a mountain range that straddles both Colombia and Venezuela.

Officials said they could not rule out the possibility that he had been smuggled over the border - meaning he would have been out of reach of Colombian police.

A reward of $48,000 (£39,000) had been offered for information leading police to the hostage.

The Liverpool winger had pleaded with his father's captors to release him - and said he and his brothers were in a "desperate" situation.

Mr Diaz was eventually released by guerrillas from the National Liberation Army (ELN), according to the Colombian FA.

The 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 government and the ELN began a six-month ceasefire in August.

Walked 'too much': Liverpool striker Luis Diaz's dad recounts kidnapping


Valentín DÌAZ
Fri, 10 November 2023 

Diaz walked with difficulty and had to be helped up from his chair after addressing reporters (Daniel Munoz)

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.

Diaz, finally liberated 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."

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.

"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.

But "this was a different story," he said Friday. "I would not want anyone to be in that mountain in the situation I was in."

Footballer Diaz's parents were abducted by armed men on motorcycles at a gas station in Barrancas, a town near the Venezuelan border.

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."

- 'Peace in Colombia' -

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."

The abduction threatened to derail high-stakes peace negotiations between the ELN and the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro.

Petro took office last August 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.

According to official data, the ELN still holds about 30 hostages.

Colombia's rights ombudsman Carlos Camargo said Friday the practice must be stopped as part of "fixed conditions" for successful peace talks.

But an ELN leader who goes by the name Antonio Garcia said on X, formerly Twitter, the organization "will not accept conditions or blackmail."

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.

Acquaintances have told AFP he sometimes sold food he cooked himself to pay for his son's trips to Barranquilla, the city where he had his debut.

He later played for Porto and now for Liverpool.

The ELN, one of Colombia's last recognized guerrilla groups, has some 5,800 combatants.

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