Colombia reacted this Saturday shocked by the unexpected death of the official senator Piedad Córdobawho would turn 69 on the 25th of this month, most of them dedicated to politics, the defense of human rights, peace and minorities.
One of the first to express his regret for Córdoba’s death was the Colombian president, Gustavo Petrowho noted on social networks: “Piedad Córdoba was a woman beaten by an era and a society. “She fought all her mature life for a more democratic society.”
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Córdoba died this Saturday in Medellín, the city where she was born on January 25, 1955. Her relatives took her to the Conquistadores clinic, where she arrived without vital signs, as reported this Saturday by that institution.
The Colombian head of state added: “As a congressman I met her and as a senator she died. “A true liberal has died.”
In this file photo taken on February 22, 2022, Piedad Córdoba speaks during a press conference with the image of then-candidate and now president Gustavo Petro behind. (JUAN BARRETO / AFP).
Opposite shores
The president of the Commons party, Rodrigo Londonowho was the last commander of the FARC, and close to Córdoba, assured that “She was a true democrat, a liberal with deep convictions, a tireless defender of human rights and an essential part of the political solution to the long armed conflict.”
From the other political shore, José Félix Lafaurie, member of the Government’s peace negotiating team in the peace talks with the National Liberation Army (ELN) and executive president of the Colombian Federation of Livestock Breeders (Fedegan), assured that Córdoba “He never gave a truce, always on the front line to defend his ideas; those that are very different from mine, deserve respect.”
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Contrary to what was expressed by Lafaurie, his wife, the senator María Fernanda Cabal, of the Uribista Democratic Center party, said that Córdoba “He left a debt of pain for his relationship with the FARC and the kidnapped people.”
According to Cabal, Córdoba used his friendship with the late former Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez “to profit and inherited privileges with (Nicolás) Maduro and his partner Álex Saab. “We were left owing the truth, in impunity.”
In the first decade of this century, Córdoba served as a mediator, along with then-president Chávez, for the release of those kidnapped by the FARC guerrilla.
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The former Colombian senator and former mediator in a humanitarian hostage exchange, Piedad Córdoba. (Photo by Federico PARRA/AFP)
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More voices of recognition
The Colombian vice president, Francia Marquez, He also highlighted the figure of the deceased leader, of whom he said that “She was a woman who opened the doors to Colombian politics, to Afro-descendant women, and who fought tirelessly for peace and social justice in our country.”
The senator Humberto de la Callewho was the head of the Government’s negotiating team in the peace agreement signed with the FARC in November 2016, pointed out that Córdoba had a “life full of vicissitudes but always carrying the lament of the forgotten. A complex life journey has ended, but accompanied by the coherent thread of the vindication of the humble.”
The former minister joined the cascade of lamentations Juan Fernando Cristo who recalled that he and Córdoba were benchmates when they were in the Liberal Party.
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“In recent years we have taken different directions but “I always respected his tenacity in defending his convictions and his genuine commitment to the humble and minorities.”, wrote Christ.
The former senator also expressed his regret Gustavo Bolívar, who coincided with Córdoba on the electoral lists of the ruling Historical Pact, and who assured that “the progressivism of Latin America loses one of its greatest fighters.”
For her part, the former mayor of Bogotá Clara Lopez Obregon highlighted that Córdoba was characterized by “his tenacity in defense of a negotiated solution to the conflict.”
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