The father of Liverpool striker Luis Diaz was freed, the Colombian authorities declared on Friday, 12 days after he was abducted in the country’s north by rebels belonging to the National Liberation Army, or ELN.

The government team, which is now engaged in peace talks with the ELN, made the announcement about the release.

The October 28 kidnapping of Luis Manuel Diaz in the little village of Barrancas attracted international attention very quickly. After scoring a goal for Liverpool in a Premier League soccer match on Sunday, the younger Diaz made an appeal for his father’s release and showed off a T-shirt that read “Freedom for Papa” in Spanish.

At first, it was unknown who was behind the kidnapping. However, the Colombian government declared last week that it was aware of Diaz’s kidnapping by an ELN faction.

Later, the ELN admitted to the kidnapping, claiming it was an error and that the senior leadership of the organization had directed the elder Diaz’s release.

According to an ELN statement on Sunday, military deployments in northern Colombia caused difficulties for the scheduled release, and the group was unable to ensure a safe release under such conditions. On Monday, the Colombian military announced that it was moving to make a release easier.

At a Barrancas gas station, two armed guys riding motorcycles had abducted Liverpool’s Diaz’s parents. However, police who had erected barricades around the 40,000-person town, which is close to Colombia’s border with Venezuela, were able to save the soccer player’s mother, Cilenis Marulanda, in a matter of hours.

Following the abduction, special troops were sent to the region to look for Diaz’s father in a cloud forest-covered mountain range that crosses both countries. Authorities also promised a $US48,000 reward for information that would help find him.