Kidnapped soccer star rescued after shootout between police and captors in Ecuador jungle
An Ecuadoran soccer star held hostage for three days has been rescued after a firefight between police and his captors in the jungle near Colombia.
Pedro Perlaza, 33, a defender with top-flight club Delfin, was freed along with another person, police announced Wednesday evening in a social media post.
He had been missing since Sunday evening.
In a social media post Thursday, police said three suspects had been arrested and that they had demanded $60,000 in exchange for their release.
A video released by police on Thursday showed the two men who were kidnapped — both barefoot — tearfully thanking their rescuers.
“They’ve been badly treated, but they’re alive,” Diego Velastegui, head of police in the northwestern port city of Esmeraldas, told reporters.
Police “were met by bullets from the criminals” near the coastal town of Atacames, he said. The kidnappers fled after officers returned fire. Velastegui said several of the kidnappers were wounded.
Perlaza had been held in a wooden shack built on stilts, tucked into a wooded area, according to an aerial photo released by authorities.
Agustin Marcarian / AP
Perlaza was capped three times by the national team in 2020 and has spent his entire career with Ecuadoran clubs.
He was crowned champion in 2019 with Delfin and in 2022 with Aucas.
The ordeal comes just a few weeks after fellow Ecuador soccer player Marco Angulo died from injuries he sustained in a car crash.
In recent years, Ecuador has faced a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking.
The country’s homicide rate has risen from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 47 in 2023.
Kidnapping, extortion, murder and prison massacres are now commonplace, in a country once considered an island of tranquility in Latin America.
In September, the director of Ecuador’s biggest prison, Maria Daniela Icaza, was killed in an armed attack. The country’s penitentiaries have been under military control since January, when President Daniel Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” after a brutal wave of violence, sparked by the jailbreak of a powerful crime boss.
In January, gunmen stormed and opened fire in a TV studio and bandits threatened random executions of civilians and security forces. A prosecutor investigating the assault was later shot dead.
