ELN Guerillas To Set Free Liverpool Star Luis Diaz’s Father: Bogota

The father of Liverpool striker Luis Diaz, who was kidnapped by the ELN guerrilla organization five days ago during peace negotiations with Bogota, will be released, the Colombian government said on Friday.

Reporters were informed by Interior Minister Luis Fernando Velasco that ELN negotiators had notified their government colleagues “that he will be released.”

In order for the transfer to take place, “a safe area will have to be agreed upon,” he said.

The football player’s father, Luis Manuel Diaz, has been missing for a long time, prompting a large search. His mother, Cilenis Marulanda, was saved hours after the two were kidnapped in their hometown of Barrancas close to the Venezuelan border on Saturday.

The National Liberation Army, or ELN, captured the elder Diaz on Thursday, according to the government, which also asked that he be released right away.

A six-month truce that went into effect in August is the result of peace talks between the ELN and the Marxist administration of President Gustavo Petro.

“Deepest rejection not only of the kidnapping of Luis’ father, but also… that it (the ELN) has not yet been able to release him,” the president said on Friday.

Petro was in Washington for a meeting on the US economy.

The president continued, calling for “an immediate effort” to liberate the captive because “as time passes, the conditions in which Mr. Diaz finds himself are becoming very dangerous.”

According to local media, the army reported that around 250 troops were searching for 56-year-old Diaz both on land and in the air.

The specialist anti-kidnapping unit’s Commander Llair Gonzalez said, “The operations… have not stopped for a single second.”

Luis Diaz, who has remained silent regarding the abduction, will make his own decisions about whether or not to participate in Sunday’s Premier League encounter against Luton, according to Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp, who made this announcement on Friday.