National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrillas this Thursday (9) denied their involvement in the abduction and disappearance of the adopted daughter of Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernández, whose group accused him of taking a millionaire hostage in 2004 to demand his rescue.
“After conducting relevant investigations, we inform the country that we have never taken Rodolfo Hernández’s adopted daughter, Juliana Hernández Olivero, hostage,” the ELN said in a press release. she said.
Hernández, a foreign millionaire who will be competing in the second round against left-wing candidate Gustavo Petro on June 19, accused the ELN of kidnapping Juliana while traveling with a friend to the Catatumbo region, known for its coca production.
“Maybe we never knew the truth, the National Liberation Army took this and started blackmailing me,” Bucaramanga’s builder and former mayor told Blu Radio in an interview in February this year.
Hernández claims that he paid a ransom for the release of his father, who was captured by ex-guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1994, and that he decided not to do so in the case of his daughter’s abduction. Surrender to the economic claims of the captives.
According to her version, she never heard from him again. In some interviews, she cried when she remembered the episode.
“We never contacted Rodolfo Hernández to ask for money for his release because he was not with us and we had no information about it,” the ELN message said.
The armed group assured that it did not “exclude” that Juliana was abducted by another group pretending to be the ELN.
Hernández initially suggested that the kidnapping was carried out by the guerrilla group FARC, which signed a peace deal with the Colombian state in 2016, but during the campaign he insisted on holding the ELN accountable.
Peace talks with the ELN were ended in 2019 by current president Iván Duque after a car bomb attack on a police academy in Bogotá killed 22 cadets as well as the attacker.
In a bid focused on fighting corruption and defending the free market, the polls established a technical tie-up with 77-year-old engineer Hernández, who won the first round with 40 percent of the vote.
source: Noticias
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