Colombia President Juan Manuel Santos confirmed the release of the daughter of a local police commander who was kidnapped on Thursday in the southwest state of Cauca.
The girl, whose age is reported to be between 9 and 11, was rescued at approximately 7:30PM after a massive manhunt conducted by almost 300 members from local African-Colombian communities and the Indigenous Guard performed a search between the towns of Toribio and Caloto, according to newspaper Vanguardia.
A local official told media that the girl was initially discovered at a road block, but her kidnappers were able to escape the pursuit and transferred her first to another car and then to a motorcycle.
However, the girl was found in the municipality of Toribio just 12 hours after being abducted, only a few blocks away from where a meeting was taking place between the Indigenous Guard and the indigenous governor.
“We were just planning the strategies to follow because we knew where they were. We were going to go for her, and as the information was filtered, the captors came to town and left her at the site,” said Gomez, who also stated that the local indigenous population were not going to allow the kidnapping of little girls in their territories.
The little girl is back with her parents again after a brief medical examination to ensure she was in good health.
“I was very scared. I thought I was going to be killed,” said the girl, adding, “these men never spoke to me, nor did they tell me why they had me. Now I am very happy to be with my mom.”
The daughter of the police commander was abducted at approximately 7AM on Thursday on her way to school, just several blocks from her home.
MORE: 9-year-old girl kidnapped from school in southwest Colombia
