The security forces rescued a banana industry executive who had been kidnapped earlier this month by unidentified individuals in northern Colombia, President Juan Manuel Santos said.

“They just liberated Mr. (Carlos Francisco) Perez, who had been kidnapped,” Santos told reporters during an appearance Saturday in the city of Santa Marta.

Perez, the son of a former Magdalena province governor, was abducted on Nov. 15 by three heavily armed men in Rio Frio.

Authorities have not identified the kidnappers, but they suspect common criminals are involved.

Perez was the fourth person kidnapped in Magdalena in the past two years, with four of the abductions occurring in 2012.