Luis Diaz's father speaks out as four alleged kidnappers arrested

Colombian police have arrested four men allegedly involved in the kidnapping of Luis Diaz's father.

Luis Manuel Diaz was freed on Thursday after 12 days in captivity, having been abducted by armed members of the left-wing guerrilla insurgency group Ejercito de Liberation Nacional (ELN) on October 28.

The head of the ELN had admitted it was a “mistake” to capture the Liverpool star’s father, before sanctioning his release.

Now, Colombian police have revealed that four men, supposedly connected to the ordeal, have been taken into custody.

"We have captured, in Maicao and Barrancas (La Guajira), four people accused of participating in the kidnapping of Mr. Luis Manuel Díaz, father of 'Lucho' Díaz, star of our Colombian Soccer Team," William René Salamanca Ramírez, Director General of the Colombian National Police, wrote on X.

"We launched 'Operation Freedom' on the same day of the kidnapping, which allowed us to identify the alleged intellectual and material authors, among them the criminal group 'Los Primos', which commits crimes through criminal outsourcing."

Upon his release, an emotional Luis Manuel spoke to the media on the Colombian-Venezuelan border - revealing that he went almost 12 days without sleep.

“It was a lot of horseback riding, really hard, a lot of mountains, a lot of rain, too many insects,” Luis Manuel said, speaking alongside his family.

“I couldn’t sleep peacefully, it was very difficult, almost 12 days without sleep."

Despite the harrowing experience he had to endure, Luis Manuel has no plans home town of moving away from his home town of Barrancas, still feeling safe in Colombia.

He added: "My aspirations are to continue in my town because I have my entire family in my town.

"The government has given me impressively strong and great support. I trust and have faith that it will provide me security to be in Barrancas."