On Tuesday, hundreds of people gathered in Barrancas, Colombia, to seek the release of Liverpool FC player Luis Daz’s father.
On Saturday, armed men on motorbikes kidnapped Luis Manuel Daz and his wife, Cilenis Marulanda, at a petrol station in Barrancas, the family’s hometown.
Marulanda was later rescued, but Daz Sr. remains missing, despite a massive police and military search.
A video shared on X, now known as Twitter, by journalist Aldair Rodrguez Suárez showed people walking through town, some wearing t-shirts with Daz Sr.’s face and many more holding aloft white balloons as they called for his release.
Colombian police claimed on Monday that they have identified people who could have been involved in the kidnapping.
“We have clarity on people who could have been linked to the incident,” said General Alejandro Zapata, deputy chief of national police, during a press conference on Monday.
“When events like this occur, it is generally not spontaneous – there is prior planning. People who drag people to a place, that is, they place them so that others arrive and that is what we are investigating.”
The search operation, which involves 130 officers from various police departments and 120 military personnel – as well as two motorized platoons, an unmanned aircraft, checkpoints, helicopters and a plane with a specialized radar – swept the forest bordering Colombia and Venezuela on Monday.
There had been speculation that the kidnappers would try and take Díaz Sr. over the border and into Venezuela, but Zapata said they have no evidence to suggest this has happened.
“What we know is that the kidnapping occurred in La Guajira and, logically, it is close to the border,” he went on to say. “At the moment, we have no evidence that the border has been crossed.”
“We cannot confirm it, but we also cannot rule it out.” It’s extremely conceivable that they’re looking for a way to get away to that location.”
Zapata went on to say that the police have “made progress in the investigation” and that their information is being reviewed by anti-kidnapping military and police intelligence services.
On Sunday, Daz Jr. was absent from Liverpool’s 3-0 Premier League victory over Nottingham Forest, with teammate Diogo Jota holding up the Colombian’s No. 7 shirt after scoring a goal.
Prior to Liverpool’s League Cup encounter against Bournemouth on Wednesday, which Díaz will also miss, assistant manager Pepijn Lijnders said to reporters, “The only thing now for us is we try to support him as much as we can.”
It’s quite common that a lot of things are beyond our control. We hope that everything is well and that the authorities there are able to locate his father. We only ask God for that.
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