A British businessman and former UK honorary consul has been released four days after being kidnapped in Ecuador, police said.
Colin Armstrong, 78, was kidnapped in the early hours of Saturday alongside a Colombian woman identified as his partner, Katherine Paola Santos, from his home in the town of Baba, according to a police report seen by the Guardian. He was driven away in his own black BMW, which was later found dumped, the report said.
“At the moment he is safe and healthy,” Gen César Zapata, commander general of Ecuador’s national police, wrote on X on Wednesday, with a photograph of Armstrong flanked by officers. Nine people have been arrested in connection with the kidnapping, police said.
Ecuador’s interior minister, Monica Palencia, said on X: “We will not allow impunity. Police actions continue.”
Armstrong was a former UK honorary consul in the port city of Guayaquil, a volunteer role that helps provide consular assistance, before leaving the position in 2016. He is the founder and owner of Agripac, a large agricultural products company in Ecuador, and owns the 500 acre (202 hectare) Tupgill Park estate in North Yorkshire. He was awarded an OBE and CMG in 2011.
The British ambassador in Ecuador, Chris Campbell, said: “We are delighted that Colin Armstrong OBE, our former honorary consul in Guayaquil, has been safely released.”
Police said Armstrong was rescued on the road to Manabi, a coastal province in Ecuador. On Saturday, a video posted on social media, purportedly of the house where he had been kidnapped, showed blood-stained sheets on a bed and ransacked rooms.
Criminal violence has increased in Guayaquil, Ecuador’s most populous city, according to the International Crisis Group in 2022. The country, traditionally seen as safer than many of its neighbours, has had a surge in violence, largely caused by the drug trade and compounded by widespread economic hardship in Latin America.
Against this backdrop, the president, Daniel Noboa, who took office in late November, has promised to crack down on drug gangs and organised crime and pledged to take control of Guayaquil, which exports cocaine to the US, Europe and Asia.
