COLOMBIA.- This Saturday, January 20, the Colombian senator of the Historical Pact, Piedad Córdova, died of a heart attack in her apartment in the city of Medellín at the age of 67.
The congresswoman, who would turn 68 years old on January 25, arrived without vital signs at the Conquistadores clinic in Medellín due to a heart condition, family members confirmed to SEMANA magazine.
Córdoba had been in a critical state of health since 2022 and had currently remained hospitalized in the Rosario clinic, after facing the capture of her brother Álvaro Córdoba, extradited to the United States, where he accepted his guilt for being involved in drug trafficking.
Who was Piedad Córdoba?
The Colombian politician was a lawyer and politician born in Medellín in 1955, who held major positions in Colombian politics and worked for women’s rights and ethnic and sexual rights. She began her career in the public administration of Medellín in the 1980s, being elected Mayor in 1988 and councilor in 1989.
She then had a long career in the Colombian Congress that began in 1991, when she was elected to the Chamber by the Jaramillista faction and later reached the Senate in 1994. After being re-elected four times, she managed to lead the Poder Ciudadano movement and obtain in 2023 the presidency of the Colombian Liberal Party.
However, in recent years Piedad Córdoba’s political image has been affected by health problems and controversies and accusations of connections with armed groups and neighboring countries with socialist visions. Which led to her being dismissed and disqualified by the Attorney General’s Office from holding public office in 2010.
Despite this, the lack of evidence forced the Colombian justice system to restore her right to be elected to public office in 2016 and to compensate her with 2,000 million pesos. Allowing him to return to the political arena with the Historical Pact.
Known as Theodora
During the governments of the former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), Córdoba was a key figure in the processes of liberating kidnapped people held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), such as Íngrid Betancourt, former candidate for the presidency of the that country, and other congressmen and politicians.
At that time, Piedad was known in the ranks of the FARC under the alias Teodora, and was accused by some of the kidnapping victims of giving a political background to these releases, in order to obtain credits in alliance with the then president of Venezuela Hugo Chávez and the current dictator Nicolás Maduro, with whom he had a close relationship.
The late Venezuelan president intended to gain popularity for the constitutional referendum that would take place in the South American country, while the senator was preparing as a presidential candidate, but both failed in their aspirations.
His relationship with Petro
The current president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, spoke out through his social networks lamenting the death and assured that Córdoba was a woman beaten by an era and a society.
“He fought all his mature life for a more democratic society. Her body and mind did not resist the pressure of an anachronistic society, which applauded the adjustments of young people, which hated dialogue and peace, which hated blacks, indigenous people and the poor, which treated her like a criminal. As a congressman I met her and as a senator she died, a true liberal has died,” said the Colombian president.
A year ago, precisely in January 2023, Córdoba offered an interview to SEMANA, in which he referred to his satisfaction with the Petro government.
“I feel very happy. It was many years waiting for a moment like this, almost more than 30 years, I arrived at Congress with Gustavo in 1991,” she explained.
Although also, the then congresswoman expressed that there is a big failure within the Government on the communication issue. “Most people, many times, are uninformed due to the lack of a communication strategy,” she emphasized.
@Lydr05
FOUNTAIN: With information from Semana magazine and Infobae
