MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

García Márquez relative rescued from kidnappers in Colombia after 3 months

President Ivan Duque explained Martinez Garcia was rescued in an “impeccable” operation

Melissa Martínez García, a relative of the late Nobel Literature Prize winner Gabriel Garcia Marquez has been freed after being kidnapped and held for ransom for over three months, Colombian authorities announced Monday.

President Ivan Duque explained Martinez Garcia was rescued in an “impeccable” operation carried out by special forces, which also led to the arrsst of some twelve kidnappers.

Martínez García was captured on August 23 while returning home to Santa Marta from her job overseeing work on a banana farm.

Duque described her captors as “common delinquents” whose leaders have ties to paramilitary groups. They were allegedly seeking a five-million-dollar ransom and it remains unclear whether the sum was actually paid or if and how the reward of up to 50 million Colombian pesos (about US$ 16,000) for information that would lead to Martínez García's whereabouts offered by the Colombian authorities played any role in her rescue.

Video footage released by the military showed the woman smiling as she was embraced by a force member and shuttled away in a helicopter.

Melissa Martinez Garcia is the granddaughter of Jaime Garcia Marquez, brother of the famous writer.