“But this is routine more than anything else at the moment,” the source said. “We have to keep an open mind.”
Ricardo Vanegas, an Ecuadorian lawyer and former MP, has claimed Ms Santos was born Alberto Santos and is a transgender woman.
“Following the kidnap of Colin Armstrong, it’s become known that Katherine Paola Santos was born in the Colombian city of Barranquilla and began having surgery to look more feminine and that her birth name is Alberto Santos”, he wrote on Twitter.
“It appears she is now being investigated by prosecutors and police in Ecuador over the kidnap of Colin Armstrong.”
A video posted on social media, purportedly of the house where Mr Armstrong was kidnapped, shows blood-stained sheets on a bed and ransacked rooms.
Mr Armstrong was Britain’s former honorary consul in the city of Guayaquil until his son, Nick Armstrong, took over in 2016.
The younger Armstrong, who helps run the family estate in North Yorkshire, is believed to have flown to Ecuador to help police locate his father.
‘We just want my father back’
Mr Armstrong’s daughter Diana Armstrong-Bruns, an estate agent based in California, told Mail Online: “This is a critical time, we’ve been told not to say anything to anyone. We just want my father back.”
Mr Armstrong, who was awarded an OBE in 2011, is the founder and owner of an agricultural company, Agripac, and owner of the 500-acre Tupgill Park Estate in North Yorkshire.
William Turner is a seasoned U.K. correspondent with a deep understanding of domestic affairs. With a passion for British politics and culture, he provides insightful analysis and comprehensive coverage of events within the United Kingdom.
