2023-11-11 22:09:34
AFP
“I walked a lot, I rested little”, the 12 days of Manuel Díaz kidnapped
“I walked a lot, I rested little. I saw a mountain that I had never seen (…) I don’t want anyone to go through that mountain in the situation I was in”: this is how Manuel Díaz remembers his days kidnapped by the ELN guerrilla between paths of the hot mountains of the Colombian-Venezuelan border. The father of Liverpool footballer Luis Díaz was kidnapped by motorcyclists on October 28 and handed over to a commission of the Catholic Church and the UN on Thursday. This Friday, in a press conference from his home in the small town of Barrancas, he said that he spent “almost 12 days without sleeping (…) even though the treatment was good.” “I didn’t feel very comfortable. I missed all my things, my family, my children, my father, my sister, the town, the friends who yell at you ‘teacher’,” said the 56-year-old amateur soccer coach, who returned home exhausted, limping and with a bandage on his right knee. Through tears, he hoped that his release would mean “a big step towards making peace in Colombia a success” and asked that “all those people who are kidnapped at this moment have the opportunity to be free.” A demand that is also made by the government of leftist Gustavo Petro, who has been negotiating with the ELN for almost a year and agreed to a ceasefire in August. – “Do not get your hopes up” -The Executive delegation stressed yesterday in a statement that the kidnappings affect “the confidence of Colombian society in the possibility of achieving peace.” The ombudsman, Carlos Camargo, said on Friday that ” Stopping kidnapping and recruiting minors must be immovable conditions to continue the dialogues. However, the ELN insists on this practice, arguing that it is one of its sources of income. According to the government, at least 30 people are in the power of the Guevara guerrilla founded in 1964. On his X account (formerly Twitter), the ELN commander, known by the alias Antonio García, assured that “he will not accept impositions or blackmail “. “Don’t get your hopes up,” he warned. García, whose real name is Eliécer Chamorro, added that at the negotiating table there are no agreements “on economic, political or judicial withholdings. It remains to find a concrete and real solution to finance the Cease (to fire).”Despite García’s warnings, the government insists on defending the process: “The vocation of the ‘Elenos’ (…) is to continue with the dialogue. They see that Petro is a possibility of peace,” said Foreign Minister Álvaro Leyva in an interview with AFP during an official visit to France. For his part, the Minister of the Interior, Fernando Velasco, raised the possibility of financing the guerrilla with resources from the international community. “If we are going to ask an organization that lives off of illegal actions to stop doing illegal actions, what are they going to live off of? We must find a solution, most likely the international community will be able to help us.” – Captivity and rescue – “The first two or three days I suffered with food issues,” Manuel Díaz said on Friday. Those first days I walked between 8 and 12 hours a day. “I felt a change after three days, when it seemed that I was already in the hands of the ELN. They spoke to me differently and treated me differently,” he said. “They did not make a request for any resource (money), we thought about that, but it didn’t happen,” said the man of indigenous descent, known in this desert region as Mane. On Thursday, a helicopter landed on the top of a mountain and took him to the city of Valledupar, from where he traveled by road to his native Barrancas. In his town he was welcomed with music and celebrations. “When the rescue group arrived and they took me by the hand, I felt a lot of emotion, I had to cry a lot to vent,” he said. Although the kidnapping occurred in Barrancas and press reports indicate that the family plans to leave the country, Díaz has no desire to leave his hometown. “In my town I have my whole family, I have my father, I have my mother buried.” He also said that the Petro government gave him “impressively strong support” and that he is confident of having security guarantees to remain in his town.vd / jss / ll
#Paul #Giamatti #academic #education #prepare #Holdovers