A contractor for Canadian oil company Talisman was released Friday morning by leftist guerrilla group FARC after nearly five months in captivity.
Luis Dayan Tapias Garcia, a contracted surveyor, was one of the 23 subcontractors who were kidnapped by members of the FARC on March 7. The group of 23, who are all of Colombian nationality, were performing exploratory work in the eastern department of Vichada when they were captured.
While FARC released 22 of the employees a day after the kidnapping, Garcia was held for an additional five months.
Reports are conflicted regarding the location and terms of Garcia’s release. According to magazine Semana, Garcia was delivered by peasants at a military patrol near the Venezuelan border. Other news sources say that the contractor was found by military in an abandoned school in the department of Guainia, where he was allegedly left by members of the FARC’s 16th Front.
Garcia is reported to have some health conditions, which some news sources speculate might have led to his release. Colombia’s army attributes his release to the increased military pressure against FARC guerrillas in the area.