Liverpool striker Luis Diaz had a tearful reunion Tuesday along with his father, freed final week after a 12-day kidnapping ordeal by the hands of Colombia’s ELN guerrilla group. Diaz was again house in Colombia to hitch the nationwide workforce forward of a World Cup qualifying match in opposition to Brazil Thursday within the seaport metropolis of Barranquilla, the place the assembly along with his dad, Luis Manuel Diaz, was organized. The pair embraced in tears, in response to photos distributed by the Colombian Soccer Federation (FCF).
Luis Manuel Diaz, 56, wore a black T-shirt with the phrases: “No extra kidnapping.”
“After 12 days disadvantaged of freedom, that is the primary contact of the participant along with his father and the remainder of the household, who lived lengthy moments of anguish,” the FCF stated on its web site with a photograph of the 2 males and the footballer’s younger daughter on her grandfather’s knee.
Luis Manuel Diaz and his spouse Cilenis Marulanda had been kidnapped by armed males on bikes at a fuel station of their house city of Barrancas close to the Venezuelan border on October 28.
Marulanda was rescued hours later and an enormous search operation by floor and air was launched for her husband.
The ELN, which is in peace negotiations with the federal government and is celebration to a six-month ceasefire that entered into power in August, described the kidnapping by one in every of its models as a “mistake.”
Final Thursday, after days of intense negotiations, the rebels handed Diaz over to humanitarian staff in a mountainous border space.
The next day, he informed reporters at his house in Barrancas how he was made to stroll “an excessive amount of,” with little or no sleep, by the hands of his kidnappers.
On Saturday, police stated that they had arrested 4 suspects within the crime.
Luis Manuel Diaz is the founder and newbie coach of the one soccer academy in Barrancas, the place his son confirmed promise from a really younger age.
Diaz Sr is credited with aiding the meteoric rise of his son, who has performed for his nation 43 instances and is the primary Indigenous Colombian to make it to world soccer’s prime echelons.
Acquaintances have informed AFP he generally offered meals he cooked himself to pay for his son’s journeys to Barranquilla, the place he had his debut.
The younger winger referred to as “Lucho” later performed for Porto, and now performs for Liverpool.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV workers and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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