BOGOTA, Nov 3 — The Colombian government on Thursday accused the ELN guerrilla group, with which it is seeking to negotiate peace, of kidnapping Liverpool winger Luis Diaz’s...
BOGOTA, Nov 3 — The Colombian government on Thursday accused the ELN guerrilla group, with which it is seeking to negotiate peace, of kidnapping Liverpool winger Luis Diaz’s parents in their home town last weekend.
The ELN and the government of leftist President Gustavo Petro are in the midst of peace negotiations and a six-month ceasefire which entered into force in August.The parents of Colombia and Liverpool player Diaz were abducted Saturday by armed men on motorcycles at a gas station in their home town of 38,000 people in the northern La Guajira department.Colombian authorities have said there has been no ransom demand.
Petro, a former urban guerrilla himself, 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. With some 5,800 combatants, the group is primarily active in the Pacific region and along the 2,200-kilometer border with Venezuela.
The elder Diaz is credited with aiding the meteoric rise of the Liverpool and Colombia striker known as Lucho.