In the proverbial happy ending, two Spaniards who were taken hostage by a guerrilla group in Colombia on May 17th have finally been freed and are planning a wedding.
The couple,
Ángel Sánchez and María Concepción Marlaska, were taken hostage May
17th and were held in a remote area of Colombia's La Guajira province
near the border with Venezuela.
A specialist anti-kidnapping unit finally freed the couple in a raid.
At first the couple preferred not to make any public comments on their
experience, but changed their minds on Sunday, when they held a press
conference in the Spanish embassy in Bogota, according to El Periodico.
Now the story of two Spaniards enduring a month-long kidnap ordeal looks
set to have a happy ending when their press conference turned into a
public marriage proposal.
49-year-old Sánchez used the press conference to take the opportunity to
propose to his partner of seven years, 43-year-old Marlaska:
"I'm going to do something I thought I would not ever do, at least under
these circumstances, which is to ask for your hand in marriage," he
said.
"I hope you don't say no."
"Will you be my wife? Will you marry me?" he asked.
And to his delight, Marlaska's reply was an emphatic: "Yes."
The couple then continued to detail their traumatic experience, but
explained that they are both "very well."
According to Marlaska, the
experience brought them closer together because "it is essential to
become a team to stay strong." She said that throughout their period of
captivity they had given each other mutual support to keep their spirits
up.
A visibly emotional Sánchez declared: "I want to say something very important, in public."
"I am only alive thanks to her."
He added: "I want the whole world to know, because otherwise I would have gone crazy."
The newly engaged couple, who are from Avilés in the northern region of
Asturias, then told the media that they were eager to return to normal
daily life on their return to Spain on Monday.
A fairytale ending indeed to a horrible ordeal.
--
Background:
In May, it was reported
by Spain's foreign ministry that the couple, who were tourists in
Colombia, had been kidnapped by a group claiming to be part of the
country’s notorious armed group FARC.
Their luggage was left at a hotel in the Guajira region, which is an
area renowned for its heavy paramilitary and drug trafficker presence
and their car was found with a broken window at a ranch about 85
kilometers outside of the town of Uribia.
While it remains unclear whether the captors were actually part of
Colombia’s main “terrorist” group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of
Colombia, the abductors asked the victims' families for a ransom the day
after the kidnapping.
Reportedly, Marlaska is a relative of high-profile judge Fernando Grande-Marlaska.
Read more: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/352562
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