The kidnapping of Luis Díaz’s father went, in the last 24 hours, from being a security problem to a state matter. Military intelligence was the one that informed Defense Minister Iván Velásquez on Wednesday night that an ELN unit was responsible for the kidnapping, which put peace negotiations in jeopardy. Velásquez told the rest of the Government and in a very short time a crisis cabinet was organized in the Nariño Palace. There, the statement that was made public this Thursday was drafted, in which the ELN was firmly demanded to immediately release Mane Díaz, and it was decided that Otty Patiño, head of the Petro delegation in the peace talks, would travel from immediately to Cuba to meet with the guerrilla leadership. It was early morning when Patiño left the presidential residence and headed to the island.
In those hours, according to the footballer’s entourage, Petro called Luis Díaz in England and announced that his father was in the hands of the guerrilla, although he reassured him by assuring him that the Government had focused on the matter and hoped to fix it as soon as possible. soon as possible. According to these same sources, this Thursday the footballer received another call announcing that his release was imminent. “The process has already started and the father is on his way to return. Nothing is being negotiated here. There is no choice but to release him immediately,” says someone involved in the conversations, who emphasizes that it is not an agreement, but rather an urgent demand from the president.
In this crisis, Petro has been as emphatic as that day, in front of the army generals, in which he told the guerrillas that they only had two paths: that of Camilo Torres, a guerrilla priest who was active in that organization and was a pioneer of the Liberation Theory, or that of Pablo Escobar, the drug trafficker who in the eighties attacked Colombia with an army of hitmen. The path of virtue or that of crime and blood. The ELN felt very offended and froze discussions at the peace negotiation table until the president recanted. He did not do it, but the negotiating skills of Senator Iván Cepeda and the peace commissioner, Danilo Rueda, made everything return to normal. The new unforeseen event that jeopardizes his entire peace project – the ambitious idea of disarming all illegal groups and remedying the causes of violence – has once again taken Petro out of his element.
The parents of the Colombian national team star were kidnapped on Saturday in their town, Barrancas. They were at a gas station when some armed men on motorcycles took them away. The first hours were disconcerting. The army and police deployed a large operation in this area of La Guajira, a poor region next to the Caribbean Sea. This immediacy in the response meant that the kidnappers, faced with the risk of being trapped, had to free the mother, Cilenis Marulanda. However, Mane, the father, suffered worse luck and disappeared in this place that is distinguished by its desert landscapes, but also by a large mountainous area, and bordering Venezuela, the Serranía del Perijá.
The authorities, at first, thought that the kidnapping had been committed by a common criminal group. There was speculation that Mane could have been transferred to Venezuela. He is now believed to have been held in the Perijá, a foothills of the Andes mountain range between Colombia and Venezuela. This Thursday, Otty Patiño was in charge of announcing, through a statement, who was actually behind the kidnapping: “We demand that the ELN immediately release Mr. Luis Manuel Díaz, and we remind him that It is your entire responsibility to guarantee his life and integrity.” “We remind the ELN that kidnapping is a criminal practice, in violation of International Humanitarian Law, and that it is their duty in the development of the current peace process, not only to stop carrying it out, but also to eliminate it forever,” the statement reads. text.
The kidnapping, which has immediately provoked enormous national and international condemnation, has occurred in the midst of a ceasefire between the ELN and the Government, agreed for now until February. The state delegation considers that the guerrillas violate the agreement, but Pablo Beltrán, the chief negotiator of the armed rebels, once suggested that, according to his very particular vision, they do not consider that the kidnappings or “retentions” were within their what was stipulated. In any case, the guerrillas seem to have not measured their actions well. The entire country has rejected the kidnapping and has added pressure to the negotiating table, which has been in operation for more than a year. Petro’s patience is running out and the ELN’s is running out of the little credit he has. The countdown to the release of Mane Díaz is underway.
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