Kidnapped soccer star rescued after police shootout with captors in Ecuadorian jungle

An Ecuadorian football star held hostage for three days has been rescued after an exchange of fire between police and his captors in the jungle near Colombia.

Pedro Perlaza, 33, defender of elite club Delfin, was released along with another person, police announced Wednesday evening in a statement. social media post.

He had been missing since Sunday evening.

In a social media post On Thursday, police said three suspects were arrested and demanded $60,000 in exchange for their release.

A video released by police on Thursday shows the two kidnapped men – both barefoot – tearfully thanking their rescuers.

“They were mistreated, but they are alive,” Diego Velastegui, police chief in Esmeraldas, a port city in the northwest of the country, told reporters.

Police “were greeted by the criminals' bullets” near the coastal town of Atacames, he said. The kidnappers fled after the police returned fire. Velastegui said several kidnappers were injured.

Perlaza was being held in a wooden cabin built on stilts, nestled in a wooded area, according to an aerial photo released by authorities.

Perlaza was capped three times for the national team in 2020 and has spent his entire career with Ecuadorian clubs.

He was crowned champion in 2019 with Delfin and in 2022 with Aucas.

This ordeal comes just a few weeks after that of another Ecuadorian footballer. Marco Angulo has died from injuries he suffered in a car accident.

In recent years, Ecuador has faced a wave of violence linked to drug trafficking.

The country's homicide rate increased from six per 100,000 inhabitants in 2018 to 47 in 2023.

Kidnappings, extortion, murders 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 largest 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 state of “internal armed conflict” after a wave of brutal violence, sparked by the jailbreak of a powerful crime boss.

In January, gunmen stormed and opened fire in a television studio and bandits threatened to randomly execute civilians and security forces. A prosecutor investigating the assault was later dejected.