Colombian Police Proceed Frantic Search For Kidnapped Liverpool Star Participant’s Father

The daddy of star Liverpool F.C. participant Luis Díaz remains to be lacking after each his dad and mom have been kidnapped Saturday of their dwelling nation of Colombia.

Police on Tuesday discovered two of the 4 folks suspected of being concerned within the operation that noticed Luis Manuel Díaz and his spouse, Cilenis Marulanda, being held at gunpoint as they have been leaving a fuel station in Barrancas, in keeping with The Guardian.

The couple was being adopted by males on bikes earlier than they have been confronted, in keeping with CCTV shared by native shops and reported by the BBC.

Whereas Marulanda was rescued inside hours of being taken, kidnappers are nonetheless holding on to her husband.

About 200 members of the nation’s safety forces, together with elite police squads utilizing helicopters to hold out aerial searches, have been frantically in search of the elder Díaz’s whereabouts, together with in a forest in northern Colombia, providing a $48,000 reward for suggestions that might support the investigation. One of many greatest issues is that Díaz’s father might have been smuggled throughout the border with Venezuela.

Barracas residents, together with Marulanda and the elder Díaz’s father, attended a vigil on Tuesday, holding candles and sporting T-shirts with the lacking man’s face on them, calling for his launch. The Liverpool participant had additionally shared a flyer in regards to the march on his Instagram account.

Díaz’s father, in keeping with the BBC, is a well known determine in his neighborhood and coaches younger soccer gamers.

The youthful Díaz, who was due to participate in his staff’s Sunday recreation in opposition to Nottingham Forest, was swapped out of the lineup after the information broke.

Jurgen Klopp, the coach of Liverpool, considered one of England’s greatest soccer golf equipment, reacted to the troublesome information after the match. Liverpool received 3-0, and teammate Diogo Jota held up Díaz’s jersey after scoring the staff’s first objective.

“We played in the most difficult circumstance I’ve ever had,” Klopp advised Sky Sports activities.

He continued: “We all pray and hope that everything will be fine.”

The membership echoed Klopp in a assertion Sunday studying: “It is our fervent hope that the matter is resolved safely and at the earliest possible opportunity. In the meantime, the player’s welfare will continue to be our immediate priority.”

Sergio Guzmán, the director for political danger consultancy Colombia Danger Evaluation, advised The New York Instances kidnappings within the nation have began ticking upward once more following a slowdown after the federal government struck a peace settlement with Colombia’s greatest insurgent group in 2016.

Díaz, who additionally performs in Colombia’s nationwide males’s soccer staff, is presently in England.