The controversies that marked the life of Piedad Córdoba
The Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba Ruiz, who died this Saturday at the age of 68, He had a long career marked by political struggles, controversies even outside the country and by his activism in favor of peace.
Born in Medellín in 1955, she was always a figure in the Liberal Party, recognized both for her left-wing positions that earned her both sympathies and antipathies, and for the brightly colored turbans she wore daily and which she became her personal trademark.
“Piedad brought together a series of attributes that for the retrograde society were impassable; she was a woman and black and a left-wing liberal and a lover of peace and she spoke with guerrillas and military and proposed peace and not war and did not want a paramilitary society or a government of murderers”, This is how the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, defined it today.
After graduating as a lawyer from the Universidad Pontifica Bolivariana in her native Medellín, in the mid-80s, she entered politics at the hands of the liberal leader William Jaramillo, who promoted her name and led her to be a councilor of her city. deputy of the Assembly of Antioquia, representative to the Chamber and finally senator.
She arrived in the Senate in 1994 as Jaramillo’s successor and quickly became noted for being on the leftmost wing of the Liberal Party with debates on the rights of minorities and the need to negotiate peace with the guerrillas, which put her in the crosshairs of the paramilitary groups that in those years expanded their dark power.
Links with the FARC
Since then identified as a sympathizer of the FARC guerrilla, She was kidnapped on May 21, 1999 in Medellín by order of Carlos Castaño, then head of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), who held her captive for several weeks.
“This has been because I am a woman who thinks differently, because I am from the left,” she said fifteen years later, at a hearing in the Superior Court of Bogotá in which several paramilitaries involved in her kidnapping were tried.
A tireless fighter for peace and defender of popular causes, Córdoba had to take the path of exile as a result of the kidnapping and settled with her children in Canada, from where she returned months later to continue in the political struggle.
In the first decade of this century, especially during the Government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), The figure of Córdoba gained notoriety for his close friendship with the then Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, which made her the target of numerous criticisms due to the strong animosity that marked the relationship between the two leaders at that time.
But it was his friendship with Chávez and his closeness to the FARC guerrilla that made Córdoba become a mediator for the release of many of those kidnapped by that armed group, among them military and police, some of whom, recently released, he appeared in Caracas along with the Bolivarian leader.
Since then, some investigations have pointed to his alleged links with the FARC, and it was even said that in documents seized from that guerrilla he was cited with the alias ‘Teodora Bolívar’, a union that accompanied her until death.
Due to these complaints, in 2010, the then Attorney General, Alejandro Ordóñez, dismissed her and disqualified her from holding public office for 18 years because she had supposedly “promoted and collaborated with the illegal group, FARC.”
Connection with Saab
Away from the Senate but not from politics, Córdoba dedicated herself to peace activism in various international forums where she often resorted to disqualifications against the Colombian governments in power and strengthened her friendship with Chávez and then with his successor, the current Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro.
The finger was pointed many times at Córdoba as the person who introduced Maduro to the Colombian businessman Álex Saabreleased last month from prison by the US, which considered him a “front man” for the Venezuelan Government.
According to investigations, Saab enriched himself by selling food and supplies to the Maduro Government at a premium for the government’s Local Supply and Production Committees (CLAP). a bonanza that, according to journalistic investigations, also benefited Córdoba.
After spending a few years away from legislative debates, Petro rescued her to join the Senate list of the ruling Historical Pact in the 2022 elections and although she was elected, health problems kept her away from political activity for long periods.
“A fascist attorney expelled her from the Senate and mocked her constituents, I wanted to make up for the damage and “I helped him be part of the Historical Pact list, I felt he deserved it.”the president added today.
In her last period as senator, Piedad Córdoba also had to face the extradition to the United States of her brother Álvaro, required by the Court of the Southern District of New York “for the charge of conspiracy to import narcotics.”
“Many have already condemned him, I tell you, he is innocent and will return sooner than you think,” said Córdoba when his brother, who on January 3 pleaded guilty to one of the drug trafficking charges, was extradited.
Final part credits: EFE Agency.