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Jesús Quintana García, director of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (Ciat), in Palmira (Valle del Cauca), who would have been kidnapped this Sunday in Cauca was released.
This was confirmed by the Ciat in a statement, in which they assure that “Quintana is in good mental and physical health after two days of suffering this terrible experience.”
So far the details of the event are unknown, but the Ciat assures that “An unidentified armed group captured Quintana at an illegal checkpoint in southwestern Colombia while on a personal trip.”
The Spanish scientist disappeared on the afternoon of this Sunday when he traveled in his vehicle to Neiva and passed through the municipality of Toribío, Cauca.
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Quintana is a Forest Engineer graduated from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, a Sociologist from the National University of Distance Education of Spain. She has a Master’s degree in Environment and Development from the University of Reading, UK. His professional experience is 30 years.
This kidnapping had generated the rejection of the authorities, who had already begun searching.
“We know that in that area there are groups on the fringes of the law. We could not say who the authors are.”said the governor of Cauca, Elías Larrahondo before the release was known.
Jesús Quintana has been released. Way home. He is safe and sound. We are happy!!
– Juan Lucas Restrepo (@jlucasrestrepo) December 7, 2020
The director of the Police, General Óscar Atehortúa, assured that Quintana had been intercepted by armed men in the middle of an illegal checkpoint.
(Can read: Spanish engineer would have been kidnapped in Cauca)
“This person, due to his foreign origin, caught the attention of this criminal organization, therefore, it is known that they intend to make an economic demand ”, Atehortúa pointed out in the morning hours of Monday.
The Director of the Police said that they were “working together with the Military Forces and the National Police with the investigative and technical capacities and of course with the organizations that register their strong support for the citizens and the Public Force to try to establish their whereabouts and find a way to rescue him. ”
Brigadier General Fernando Murillo, director of the Anti-kidnapping and Anti-Extortion Directorate of the Police, pointed out that a ‘padlock plan’ had been implemented to find the whereabouts of the Spanish scientist and that until now it is unknown who is holding him.
The Embassy of Spain has not commented so far. On the other hand, the mayor of Palmira, Óscar Escobar, rejected the kidnapping and hoped that the authorities would act as soon as possible and achieve the release of the Spaniard.
“I reject this fact that not only affects this foreign citizen and Ciat, but also to all the agricultural research institutions that from Palmira and the south west of Colombia contribute to innovation in the field ”.
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For his part, on his Twitter account, the former Minister of Agriculture, Andrés Valencia, stated: “I regret the kidnapping of Jesús Quintana (…). Surely the action of the authorities will make him return safely to his family soon” .
Defense Minister Carlos Holmes Trujillo had asked the kidnappers to release Quintana García, since he is an international official with diplomatic status. “It is a source of pride for our country and that it contributes, through scientific studies, to the greater and better productivity of the agricultural sector in Colombia,” he said.
In addition to being the director of Ciat, Quintana is the manager for the Americas of the Bioversity International Alliance.
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In the months that he has been in the country, Quintana has stood out for promoting projects for the development of technologies that help food security and address water resource problems of the Amazon.
Ciat is an organization that conducts collaborative research to improve agricultural productivity and natural resource management in tropical and developing countries. The main headquarters are located in the rural area of Palmira.
Michel Romoleroux
For the time
Popayán and Cali
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