The sole survivor of the Colombian amateur soccer team kidnapped and murdered in Venezuela remains in hospital. Venezuelan authorities will not allow him and his family to leave for security reasons.
The soccer players were kidnapped on October 11, in the Venezuelan state of Tachira. Their bodies were found two weeks later and showed evidence of gunshot wounds. 19 year old survivor Manuel Cortes was found alive with bullet wounds and rushed to a Caracas hospital.
The Venezuelan army are giving Cortes and his family all they require but will not allow them to leave the hospital, Caracol Radio reported Friday.
According to Venezuelan authorities it is too dangerous for the family to leave the hospital. Cortes is in complete isolation and is not allowed visitors apart from Colombian consulate officials.
The murders created tension between Colombia and Venezuela. Venezuela claimed that the young men were paramilitaries and blamed the massacre on the Colombian domestic conflict that has been going on for more than forty years, now spilling across Venezuelan borders.
Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez said that even if the dead men were paramilitaries, this was no justification for murder.