Luis Diaz: Police search forest for kidnapped father of Liverpool forward and offer reward for information

Liverpool player Luis Diaz’s father was kidnapped on Saturday; air and land patrols as well as members of country’s special forces have been searching a mountain range that straddles Colombia’s border with Venezuela; police have offered a $48,000 (£39,000) reward for information

Diaz: Police search forest for kidnapped father of Liverpool forward and offer reward for information />

Image: Liverpool forward Luis Diaz's parents were kidnapped in Colombia

Colombian police are searching a mountain range in the north of the country for the kidnapped father of Liverpool forward Luis Diaz.

Luis Manuel Diaz and his wife were at a petrol station in the small town of Barrancas on Saturday when they were abducted by armed men on motorcycles.

The forward’s mother, Cilenis Marulanda, was rescued within hours by police after they set up roadblocks around the town near Colombia’s border with Venezuela. However, his father remains missing.

Air and land patrols as well as members of the country’s special forces have been searching a mountain range that straddles both countries and is covered by cloud forest.

Police have also offered a $48,000 (£39,000) reward for information leading to the rescue of Diaz’s father.

Officials said they did not rule out the possibility that he could have been smuggled into Venezuela, where he would be beyond the reach of Colombian police.

In a post on social media, Colombian police director general William Salamanca was shown visiting the operation in order to “recognise our commandos for their bravery and commitment to rescue him safe and sound”.

On Monday, Salamanca urged caution with regards to reports that Luis Manuel might already have been taken into Venezuela, pointing to the difficulty of crossing the Perija mountains.

Diaz on compassionate leave as search intensifies

Image: Diogo Jota raises Luis Diaz's jersey as he celebrates scoring Liverpool's opening goal against Nottingham Forest

Both FIFA and the Colombia Football Federation have offered support to Diaz, 26, while Liverpool allowed the player to return home.

Speaking after Sunday’s 3-0 home win over Nottingham Forest, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said preparation for the game had been “the most difficult I’ve ever had in my life”.

Klopp added: “I didn’t expect that, I wasn’t prepared for it. I don’t want to make the game bigger than it was, but definitely, we tried to help Luis with the fight we put in because obviously we want to help and we cannot really help.

“So the only thing we can do is fight for him and that’s what the boys did.”

Liverpool assistant manager Pep Lijnders, speaking at Tuesday’s press conference ahead of the Carabao Cup fourth round tie at Bournemouth, said the whole club was supporting Diaz as he waits for news.

The Colombia winger has been given compassionate leave after his parents were taken in his homeland over the weekend.

“We try to support him now as much as we can – lot of things out of our hands,” said Lijnders.

“I think and I feel that it’s only for Liverpool Football Club that the players know we’re doing the right thing. It’s not for me to say what we’re doing for Luis Diaz.

“As long as he knows that we’re doing all the right things and we pray. The whole club is behind him. He has that feeling then, for me, it’s right.

“The authorities are doing everything. Everything we hear is that they’re trying everything, that’s the most important thing that his family are OK.”

‘This is a huge trauma for Colombian society’

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Colombian authorities are continuing to search for the father of Liverpool forward Luis Diaz, who was kidnapped on Saturday. South American football expert, Tim Vickery explains the impact that has had on the country

Analysis by South American Football Expert Tim Vickery:

“This is a huge trauma for Colombian society. These kind of kidnappings, if you go back a few years, they were going at a rate of about 4,000 per year when the FARC guerillas were using them to raise funds.

“I remember my first time in Colombia for the 2001 Copa America, the first time Colombia had ever staged anything like this, and it nearly did not go ahead as a senior member of the Colombia FA was kidnapped shortly before the tournament. Argentina did not turn up at the last moment, Mauro Silva, the Brazil international, checked in at Rio airport, then got scared and decided not to go and then at Bogota airport his suitcase was rather pathetically going round the carousel.

“And these kind of events are a real trauma for Colombian society – the Colombians were so happy that anyone had gone there to see Colombia with their own eyes and come to the conclusion there were many other things that were great about Colombia, not just the negative headlines that people read about in newspapers.

“Since then, the number of kidnappings have gone down and down and down to around 200 a year, but Colombia is in trauma today because yet again, the world is reading about Colombia for negative reasons.

“This is a very, very worrying time obviously for Luis Diaz and his family. There is always the fear, as happened further north in Honduras a few years ago, to the brother of the then Tottenham midfielder Wilson Palacios, that the kidnappers decide just to cut their losses and anything could happen then.

“Unfortunately, it is the very success and the riches he accumulates from that success that makes him a target for this type of nefarious operation.”

Sourse: skysports.com