The 11-year-old daughter of the director of the NPU, Colombia’s government agency in charge of protecting threatened civilians, has been kidnapped, authorities said Thursday.
Police and prosecutors intensified their search for Daniela Mora, the daughter of National Protection Unit Director Diego Fernando Mora, who was kidnapped Thursday afternoon by what appears to be street criminals in the eastern Colombian city of Cucuta.
The Minister of the Interior, Juan Fernando Cristo, confirmed the kidnapping and, at the behest of President Juan Manuel Santos, directed a special police team to lead the operation to find the girl.
“This is an act that has to be rejected and condemned in solidarity with a person who has been an exceptional official for this Government. As a father, it also pains one greatly that occurrences such as these keep happening.” expressed Fabio Lopez, the police colonel leading the force that hopes to recover the child.
Thus far, the authorities surmise that the kidnapping occurred when Mora’s vehicle was intercepted by unknown assailants around 6 P.M. Thursday headed towards the metropolitan area of Cucuta.
The driver and car were later found 15 minutes north of the city in a municipality called El Zulia.
The leading hypothesis is that the kidnapping is an attempt to extort the family of the National Protection Unit director by criminal gangs operating in Cucuta.
The fear is that the child will be taken to the border of Venezuela and Colombia, not far from the city in which she was kidnapped. For this reason, security at the border has been on high alert and additional personnel have been dispatched to further secure the border.
The authorities have indicated that no hypothesis concerning the identity of the girl’s captors can be discarded as they remain completely unknown at this point.
The delivery of a ransom has not yet been considered by those involved.
Sources
Indignación por secuestro de hija del director de Unidad de Protección
