BOGOTA, May 28 (UPI) — The National Liberation Army rebel group has released three captured journalists just days after Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos ordered a massive search.
Spanish El Mundo journalist Salud Hernandez Mora was the first released by the rebel group Friday followed by the liberation of two others, Sputnik reported. Colombian journalists Diego D’Pablos and Carlos Melo reportedly arrived in the same region to report on Mora’s kidnapping.
“From the beginning I was held against my will,” Mora told reporters after being released, BBC reported. She was held captive by the the group for six days.
The Spanish newspaper El Mundo reported Mora said the kidnapping was “a serious mistake by the ELN,” according to a translation by Sputnik.
Mora said there were several tense moments, especially when “we could hear the armed forces helicopters above us, looking for me,” according to BBC.
Mora was investigating the status of the area’s eradication of coca crops when she was taken.
Earlier this week, President Juan Manuel Santos ordered top officials from the army and the National Police to search for the reporters, who went missing in the remote Catatumbo region a week ago.
“I have given instructions to the commander of the army and the National Police director to go to the area to reinforce the operation to search for Salud Hernandez and the two reporters,” Santos said Tuesday. “The public force makes every effort to locate the journalist and to release her if she is being held against her will.”
The search consisted of about 800 soldiers and several helicopters.
