Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, from the ruling Historical Pact (left), died this Saturday, January 20, in the city of Medellín (northwest) at the age of 68. In the 2000s, Piedad Córdoba acted as a mediator, along with the then Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, for the release of several kidnapped by the now extinct FARC guerrilla.
First modification:
2 min
The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, confirmed this Saturday, January 20, the death of Senator Piedad Córdoba, at 68 years of age, due to a heart attack.
“Piedad Córdoba was a woman beaten by an era and a society. She fought all her mature life for a more democratic society,” Petro said in a message on X where he added: “As a congressman I knew her and as a senator she died. A true liberal has died.”
Piety brought together a series of attributes that for 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 soldiers and she proposed peace and not war and she did not want a paramilitary society or a government of…
— Gustavo Petro (@petrogustavo) January 20, 2024
Córdoba, who would turn 69 on January 25, died at the Conquistadores Clinic in the city of Medellín, in the northwest of the country, as a result of a heart attack.
In the 2000s, during the Government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), Piedad Córdoba, who at that time was a senator for the Liberal Party, served as a mediator, together with the then Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, for the release of several kidnapped by the FARC guerrilla.
His leftist positions earned him many controversies due to his closeness to the FARC and it was even said that in documents from that guerrilla he was mentioned with the alias 'Teodora Bolívar'.
In fact, after an investigation, in 2010, the then Attorney General of the Nation, 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.” .
The investigation began from documents found on the computers of the former number two of the FARC, alias 'Raúl Reyes', who died in a bombing by the Colombian Army in Ecuador on March 1, 2008.
The politician, born in Medellín in 1955, was in the shadows for a few years, but after her sentence was annulled she returned to politics years later, responding to a call from Petro.
“A fascist attorney expelled her from the Senate and mocked her voters, I wanted to make up for the damage and helped her be part of the list of the Historical Pact, I felt she deserved it,” the president added today.
In January 2023, the Colombian Government extradited to the United States Álvaro Córdoba, the senator's brother, who was requested by a court in that country for crimes related to drug trafficking.
The Colombian Government signed a peace agreement with the then FARC guerrilla in 2016 to end 52 years of conflict.
With EFE
#Piedad #Córdoba #Colombian #senator #mediated #release #hostages #extinct #FARC #dies
