Kidnappers have released a 10-year-old girl who had been kidnapped 19 days ago from a town in the northeast Colombian Arauca department, President Juan Manuel Santos announced Monday.
The president said on his Twitter account that “we celebrate [the] release of Nohora Valentina [Muñoz]. We thank the Red Cross for its negotiation.”
The father of the town and mayor of the small town of Fortul, Jorge Enrique Muñoz, was reluctant to talk to the press until his daughter had returned home, reported newspaper El Espectador.
“We are happy about the news and wait for confirmation she is free … it will be real once she is here,” the newspaper quoted the father as saying.
The girl reportedly was released to Red Cross delegates in the municipality of Arauquita, only yards away from the Venezuelan border and some 30 miles from her home.
While Colombian authorities blamed leftist guerrillas for the kidnapping, both the FARC and ELN have denied involvement and rejected the kidnapping of the girl. Both groups have used kidnapping for decades as political leverage and for extortion purposes.
The Red Cross, involved in negotiating the release of the 10-year old has not made statements regarding the identity of the kidnappers.