End of Nightmare: Father of Liverpool's Luis Diaz ...

End of Nightmare: Father of Liverpool's Luis Diaz Set Free After Kidnapping Ordeal

Luis Diaz: Liverpool winger's father released by kidnappers in Colombia | Football News | Sky Sports — Luis Diaz

Liverpool football star Luis Diaz, whose father had been held captive by guerrillas in Colombia, has been set free after 13 days in captivity.

Members of the National Liberation Army handed Luis Díaz Sr over to members of the Catholic church and the UN on Thursday afternoon, ending almost two weeks of international speculation over his whereabouts and growing concern for his safety.

Armed men abducted Díaz Sr and his wife on October 28 in their home town of Barrancas in Colombia’s northern La Guajira state. Though Cilenis Marulanda, the footballer’s mother, was freed hours later, Díaz Sr was smuggled away on a motorbike.

Local reports alleged that he had been abducted by local mafia but the true identity of his captors was revealed on November 2 when a team of government officials negotiating with armed groups said the ELN, the country’s oldest active guerrilla group, held him hostage.

Local television channels showed Díaz Sr at an airstrip in the city of Valledupar in Colombia’s Cesar province on Thursday after he descended from a helicopter.

The government’s negotiating delegation at peace talks with ELN said in a statement it celebrated the liberation and that Díaz Sr was safe and sound, but 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.

ELN leaders pledged on November 2 to free the 56-year-old, raising hopes of his imminent release, but Díaz’s family, Colombians and football fans across the world were left waiting anxiously for news of his freedom for almost another week.

Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, earlier criticised the armed rebels for putting Díaz’s life in unnecessary danger and harming peace negotiations 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.

The ELN has blamed the Colombian military – which has been combing a mountain range bordering Venezuela for signs of Diaz’s whereabouts – for 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 joined Liverpool from Porto for €40m in January 2022, quickly proving himself one of the club’s most talented players and the Colombian national team’s brightest star. The 26-year-old was absent from Liverpool’s squad against Bournemouth and Nottingham Forest but returned to play Luton on Sunday, scoring an injury-time equaliser.