Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba, of the ruling Historical Pact, who years ago was known for her mediation work to achieve the release of those kidnapped by the FARC guerrilla, died this Saturday in Medellín (northwest) at the age of 68, confirmed President Gustavo Petro.
"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 met her and as a senator she died. A true liberal has died".
Córdoba, who would have turned 69 on January 25, died at the Conquistadores Clinic in Medellín as a result of a heart attack. "As mayor of Medellín, I have been informed of the death of Senator Piedad Córdoba. Apparently she arrived without vital signs at the Conquistadores Clinic in Medellín. Solidarity with her family," the city's mayor, Federico 'Fico, said in X 'Gutierrez.
In the first decade of this century, Piedad Córdoba, at that time a senator for the Liberal Party, served as a mediator, along with the then Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez, for the release of several kidnapped by the FARC guerrilla.
Due to her left-wing activism, 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 group outside the FARC Law."
The investigation began from the documents found in the computers of the former number two of the FARC, Luis Edgar Devia, alias "Raúl Reyes", who was killed 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, answering a call from Petro. "A fascist attorney expelled her from the Senate and mocked her constituents, I wanted to compensate for her damage and I helped her become part of the list of the Historical Pact, I felt that she deserved it," the president added today.
His leftist positions earned him many controversies due to his closeness to the FARC and it was even said that in that guerrilla documents he was mentioned with the alias "Teodora Bolívar."
In January 2023, the Colombian Government extradited to the United States Álvaro Córdoba, the senator's brother, who was wanted by a court in that country for crimes related to drug trafficking. The Colombian Government approved the extradition of Córdoba's brother, required by the Court of the Southern District of New York "for the charge of conspiracy to import narcotics."
