AFPLuis Díaz with his message
NOS Voetbal•vandaag, 12:08
Luis Díaz, Liverpool’s Colombian footballer, has made an emotional appeal Instagram asked his father’s captors to release him. The international’s parents were kidnapped at a gas station in the Colombian department of La Guajira at the end of October by armed men on motorcycles. Díaz’s mother was soon released, but his father remains in custody.
“Today it is not the footballer who talks to you, but today Lucho Díaz, son of Luis Manuel Díaz, speaks to you,” writes the 26-year-old footballer. “My father is a tireless worker and pillar of the family. I ask the ELN to release my father immediately and ask international organizations to work together to secure my father’s release.”
ELN is the communist guerrilla movement Ejército de Liberación Nacional (National Liberation Army), which has claimed responsibility for the kidnapping. The ELN is notorious for attacks, murders and kidnappings. They often kidnap relatives of wealthy citizens in order to extort them. It is not clear whether that is also the case.
AFPFamily and friends of Luis Diaz’s father demonstrated yesterday for his release in Colombia
Despite the uncertainty surrounding his father’s fate, Díaz was on the bench for Liverpool’s away match against Luton Town on Sunday. With a 1-0 deficit, the wing attacker was called upon, who came into the team as a replacement for Ryan Gravenberch. Twelve minutes later he made it 1-1, which was also the final score.
The goalscorer took the opportunity to lift his match shirt and show a text: “Libertad para papa.” Freedom for Dad.
Díaz says he receives a lot of support from his teammates, but his family is having a hard time, according to the Instagram message. “My mother, my brothers and I are desperate, scared. We have no words to describe what we feel. The suffering will only end when we get him back home. I ask you to release him immediately, to respect his integrity and to end this painful wait as soon as possible.”
2023-11-06 11:08:25
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