Piedad Córdoba, the politician who embodied the liberal left and commitment to peace in Colombia, dies

Colombian politics lost one of its most representative personalities this Saturday. Piedad Córdoba, an Afro-Colombian woman from Congress, protagonist of the most important events of the last three decades, was found dead by her bodyguards. When he was admitted to Los Conquistadores Clinic in his hometown of Medellin, he had already died of a heart attack. Known for her fight to achieve a negotiated settlement of the armed conflict with the then-FARC guerrilla and her participation in negotiations with this armed group that led to the release of several kidnapped people, she was always a controversial figure.

His turban, which he almost always wore and which highlighted his African roots, as well as his straightforward manner of speaking, were two of his most distinctive characteristics. Córdoba managed to find her place in a world dominated by men, with much lower female representation in Congress than at present, when it barely reaches 30%. He also defended the pursuit of a negotiated settlement of the conflict in the 1990s and 2000s, in which the idea was not only seen as far-fetched, but also rejected by a large portion of public opinion. However, he, as a mediator between the government of former President Álvaro Uribe and the FARC guerrillas, secured the release of many kidnapped people who had been in the jungle for years. For this work, in 2008 he was nominated for the Prince of Asturias Prize for Concorde, and was even nominated as a candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize.

President Gustavo Petro was one of the first to react to his death. “As a Congressman I met him and as a Senator he died. A true liberal has died,” the President said through a trill. At the time of his death, Piedad was a senator for the Historical Pact, the party from which Petro had become president. She spent almost half her life in Congress, where she first came to power in 1992 as representative of the Chamber for her department, Antioquia, and where she was later senator until 2010. Most of his career was spent within the party. Generous. He came from a family that had led the party for decades in Chocco, where his ancestral lineage comes from. However, he distanced himself from the Red Tent due to his progressive views and being close to the left, which led him to found the Poder Ciudadano Siglo XXI movement as an internal dissent.

“Piedad Córdoba was a woman beaten by an era and a society. He fought his entire mature life for a more democratic society. Her body and mind did not resist the pressure of an anachronistic society that valued the adjustment of young people, that hated dialogue and peace, that hated blacks, indigenous peoples, and the poor who, along with her Behaved like a criminal. A fascist lawyer expelled her from the Senate and made fun of her voters, I wanted to compensate for the damage and help her become part of the historic treaty list, I thought she deserved it,” says Trill of Petro. Are.

The President refers to one of the episodes in which Córdoba’s political career took off. In 2010, he was dismissed as senator by the Office of the Attorney General headed by Alejandro Ordóñez, who had also disqualified Petro when he was mayor of Bogotá, a decision that was later upheld by the Inter-American Court of Justice. This was overturned by a decision of the Court of Human Rights. Córdoba was accused of collaborating with the FARC and was disqualified from holding any public office for 18 years. Six years later, the Council of State withdrew both disqualifications due to lack of evidence.

Although she was not the first woman of African descent to reach Congress – Nestle Lozano had already done so in 1962 – she achieved an unprecedented role in national politics for a woman with black roots. Francia Márquez wrote on her social networks, “A woman who opened the doors of Colombian politics to women of African origin and who fought tirelessly for peace and social justice in our country.” Possibly, without Piedad’s personality it would have been difficult for someone like the current Vice President to emerge.

Piedad traveled to Latin America seeking alliances with foreign guarantors to advance peace processes, and became close to several leftist Latin American presidents, notably Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil and Hugo Chávez in Venezuela. This last friendship was the cause of his greatest criticism in Colombia, where he was accused of pursuing a secret political agenda favoring Chavismo and guerrilla. This Saturday, Nicolás Maduro expressed his condolences to his family and the Colombian people. “Dear friend Piedad, you had to face and fight so many battles for your country. A tireless warrior and one of the bravest women I have ever known, a great revolutionary, fighter, ardent defender of human rights and people’s peace,” she wrote in a trill.

according to the book Alex Saab: The truth about the businessman who became a billionaire in the shadow of Nicolás MaduroWritten by investigative journalist Gerardo Reyes, both Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro saw Piedad Córdoba as the next head of the Colombian state. “Maduro – and Hugo Chávez when he was alive – wanted her to be president of Colombia. But she confirmed it, and here comes the esoteric part, through a Santería ritual in which Simón Bolívar’s official medium tells her, in the name of the Liberator, that she is going to be president,” says the text, which also explains Because it was Córdoba who introduced him to Alex Saab, the Colombian businessman who became Madurismo’s international economic operator. However, despite the fact that his name had come up as a potential liberal candidate for president in the 2010 elections, and Although some polls had supported him, Córdoba preferred not to register for his party’s consultation.

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