The Ecuadorian Orlando Ibarra Escaped After Two Years of Imprisonment by ELN

Orlando Ibarra Sarmiento returns to Ecuador

Orlando Ibarra Sarmiento, an Ecuadorian businessman and former deputy by PRIAN party, was kidnapped since August 2, 2010 by the National Liberation Army (ELN for its Spanish acronym) managed to escape from his captors thanks to a guerrilla member who decided to defect.

On Sunday, September 9, 2012, while his captors moved him to another camp, a member from ELN told him to escape.

“When the group started moving, one of them sped up, left the group and said, ‘Brother, you want to go home?’ and I didn’t take him seriously, I said, ‘Brother, don’t make fun of me because that’s not true and you just want to kill me,’ and he said ‘let’s do it,’” Ibarra explained.

The Ecuadorian stated that they walked to a point where there was signal, the deserter called with his cell phone to the Navy to find them. The escape was part of a strategy between the guerrilla deserter and the Colombian authorities. Although Ibarra managed to flee, he regrets the death of his father at the hands of the guerrilla group, after paying a ransom in January 2012.

Ibarra Orlando, former deputy PRIAN, was one of 57 lawmakers unconstitutionally dismissed by the Supreme Electoral Court (now CNE) in March 2007, who were accused of violating the referendum promoted by President Rafael Correa. AV