Rebel group ELN announced on Monday the imminent release of a Canadian citizen who they have held captive since January.
In a statement published on the groups’ web page, the rebels stated that miner Jernoc Wobert would be released “in the coming days.”
“In the coming days we will release Canadian citizen Jernoc Wobert, vice president of explorations of the mining company Braewal Mining Corporation,” stated the ELN on its website.
The ELN publicly called on humanitarian aid organization the Red Cross to begin the mediation of the release.
Wobert was taken hostage in the northern Bolivar department on January 18 in what the ELN called an “action in defense of national sovereignty and national resources.”
The rebel group had claimed that the Canadian firm had “used deceit to snatch mining rights away from communities”, and insisted that Wobert would only be released once the firm had relinquished all mining titles.
Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos has made the release of the Canadian a condition for the rebel group to join peace talks currently ongoing with the much larger rebel group FARC.