After being taken prisoner by rebels for a month, Luis Manuel Díaz, the father of Colombian football player Luis Díaz, was freed and reunited with his son.
Hugging for the first time since the kidnapping tragedy, the Liverpool striker and his father shed tears.
A national outcry was generated in Colombia and beyond following the kidnapping of Luis Manuel Díaz by the National Liberation Army (ELN).
According to the ELN, it abducted the 58-year-old and his wife to extract a ransom.
The amateur football coach was dragged into the neighboring mountains at gunpoint by the group, who promptly freed his wife, Cilenis Marulanda, as the police closed in.
The popular coach’s kidnapping was referred to as a “mistake” by the ELN chief, who also maintained that kidnappings carried out for ransom do not violate the truce that the group agreed to earlier this year.
Luis Manuel Díaz was released by the guerilla group to representatives of the Catholic Church and the United Nations last Thursday.
He was reunited with his wife and other family members later that day, but he hadn’t been able to hug his football-star kid until today.
In preparation for the national team’s World Cup qualifying match against Brazil on Thursday night in Colombia, Luis Díaz has taken a plane to train with them.
The player didn’t participate in two of Liverpool’s games while his father was being taken captive by the rebels, but on November 5, he came off the bench in the English Premier League match against Luton.
He revealed a T-shirt with the words “freedom for Papa” underneath his Liverpool shirt after scoring a goal in stoppage time.