The ELN says that the daughter of candidate Rodolfo Hernández was not kidnapped or disappeared

The guerrilla of the National Liberation Army (ELN) assured this Thursday that they have no records of having kidnapped Juliana Hernández Olivero, daughter of the Colombian presidential candidate Rodolfo Hernandez who disappeared in 2004 in the department of Norte de Santander (border with Venezuela).

“After making the respective inquiries, we informed the country that we never held Juliana Hernández Olivero, adopted daughter of Rodolfo Hernandezwho according to him disappeared in 2004 in the region of Ocaña, Norte de Santander”, detailed the THE N in a statement published on its broadcast website.

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The populist independent candidate, who will contest the Presidency of Colombia in the second round of the elections against the leftist Gustavo Petro on June 19, has assured on several occasions that his daughter “was kidnapped by the National Liberation Army in 2004.” .

“We have been looking for her for 18 years, until last year, and they killed her, they murdered her,” Hernández said in an interview with Blu Radio in February.

In that line, the THE N He assured that none of its “structures in the region has direct or indirect responsibility in this case, it is false that she had disappeared or died in the hands of the ELN.”

“We never communicated with Rodolfo Hernández to request money for his release because she was not with us, nor did we have any information about it,” added the guerrilla, who hypothesized that perhaps “some gang” had asked the family for money for his release. “Using the name of the THE N”.

In this regard, Hernández has said that the guerrillas asked him for 7,500 million pesos (almost 2 million dollars today) for the release of his daughter, who was 23 years old at the time.

The candidate told in the interview with Blu Radio the reason why he then decided not to pay his daughter’s ransom: “They had previously kidnapped dad, they kept him for 135 days and I had to pay. In the case of her daughter, at a family gathering, my mother said: ‘don’t pay to see what happens’ and they killed her”.

Hernandez has stated its intention to resume the peace negotiations with the ELN, which were suspended throughout the government of President Iván Duque, who has conditioned its resumption on the guerrillas releasing all the hostages it has in its power and renouncing that and all its criminal activities.

Source: Elcomercio

Ronald Payne

I, Ronald Payne, am a journalist and author who dedicated his life to telling the stories that need to be said. I have over 7 years of experience as a reporter and editor, covering everything from politics to business to crime.