2023-11-04 17:07:08
The military commander of the Colombian guerrilla National Liberation Army (ELN)Eliécer Herlinto Chamorro, alias “Antonio García”, recognized this Saturday (11/04/2023) that the group made a “mistake” by kidnapping the father of soccer player Luis Díaz and assured that he ordered his release, following it became known that the ELN He is holding the man in the north of the country.
“The retention of Luis Díaz’s father by the Northern War Front was a mistake. Lucho is a symbol of Colombia and as such we feel it in the ELN,” admitted the top leader of the guerrilla in a statement broadcast on its channels. García added that the Central Command (COCE) of the ELN “guided the release of Lucho’s father”, something that the Northern War Front confirmed this Friday.
On October 28, members of that branch of the ELN boarded the van in which Luis Manuel Díaz was traveling along with his wife, Cilenis Marulanda, in Barrancas, the hometown of the Liverpool player in the department of La Guajira (north). Marulanda was released that same day, but the kidnappers took her father to the nearby Serranía del Perijá, on the border with Venezuela.
Peace process in danger
On Wednesday, the ELN peace negotiators confessed to the government counterpart that the Northern War Front had Luis Manuel, known as “Mane.” What happened shakes the peace process that the guerrilla maintains with the leftist government Gustavo Petro and the six-month bilateral ceasefire agreed between the parties since August 3.
Petro, in power since August 2022, assured the day before that the kidnapping fractures “trust” between negotiators in the face of “the possibilities of peace in Colombia.” The ELN, for its part, insisted that Díaz will be released, although it was not said when or where. García noted in his message that he hopes “that the operational situations on the ground can be resolved, this is the guidance that the commanders have to expedite the release” of Díaz.
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