The Ecuadorian soccer player Pedro Pablo Parlaza He was rescued this Wednesday after being kidnapped on Sunday night along with another person who was also released, reported the National Police of Ecuador.
A photograph was also circulated on social networks in which he appears Pearl with his friend Juan Carlos Moralessurrounded by the group of police officers who managed to rescue them. In the image the two victims appear barefoot.
The kidnapping occurred on December 1 in the town of Atacames, located in Esmeraldas, a province on the northern coast of Ecuador, bordering Colombia, where he is originally from. Pearl.
The commander of the Police in Esmeraldas, Diego Velasteguipointed out that Perlaza and Morales They were kidnapped in a building in Atacames, where upon arrival the agents “were received with bullets” by the kidnappers.
The police opened fire on the attackers and made them flee the scene, presumably wounded, so they were able to rescue the two kidnapped people alive. “They are mistreated, but alive, which is how we wanted to see them,” he said. Velastegui.
Agents specialized in intelligence, investigations and disappearances participated in the police operation.
During the days that they remained missing, the two men were found in Atacames two bodies that suggested that they were the two kidnapped people.
Perlaza, 33 years old, played this last season in the Dolphina club to which he had returned this year after triumphing there in 2019 by winning the Ecuadorian Pro League, a success that he repeated in 2021 with Liga de Quito and in 2022 with Aucas.
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He also wore the local shirts Valley Independent and Barcelonain addition to having a short-lived stint with the Ecuadorian team in 2022.
The disappearance of Pearl It occurred at a time of peak criminal violence in Ecuador, which in 2023 was the country in Latin America with the highest homicide rate, with a rate of 47.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, eight times higher than in 2016.