Ecuador: Chilean soldier freed in police operation
A member of the Chilean Navy who was kidnapped in Ecuador and had one of his fingers amputated was freed Sunday during a police operation, authorities said.
Ecuadorian police “released a Chilean national” for whom the kidnappers demanded a ransom of 100,000 dollars (95,000 euros), the interior ministry said on Twitter.
The perpetrators of the kidnapping “amputated two fingers of the left hand” of Homer, police officer Fabari Montalvo told the press.
In the photo shared by the interior ministry, the 31-year-old Chilean national is pictured next to a police officer, his left hand covered with a piece of black plastic.
“Two persons suspected of being involved in the kidnapping of this foreigner have been arrested,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The Chilean national, Luis Toledo, was abducted in the coastal city of Daule, in southwestern Ecuador, where he lives with his Ecuadorian wife, 30, according to police.
The Chilean Navy announced last Wednesday that “the sailor had been on leave without pay and had been in the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, since January.”
He was found and released as part of police operations in the town of Duran, in the Guayaquil district of Guayaquil province — which also includes the town of Daule, where he was abducted, according to the prosecution.
Guayaquil, the capital of Guayaquil, a strategic port and financial capital, is considered the most dangerous city in Ecuador: it has become a battleground for gangs vying for control of drug trafficking.
Source: RES-MPE