Very sad news about the sudden death of Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba. She is one of the great women of Our America for her bravery in confronting paramilitarism and the ultra-conservative right of her country, and for her coherence in the search for peace and happiness for her people.
Piedad was a fascinating character due to the clarity of his ideas, his common sense, his profound humanitarianism, his unwavering pacifist and revolutionary vocation, and his deep Latin American vocation. Moved by the endless slaughter that had mourned her land for decades, she devoted all her strength and the lucidity of her privileged intelligence to achieving the pacification of Colombia. As she recognized years later, she invested all her political capital and social recognition in that noble task.
Her blackness, her struggles for the best causes of the integral emancipation of the people and her condition as a woman, infinitely enhanced the hatred directed at her by the Colombian oligarchy. She was persecuted with a viciousness as perverse as it was unusual, even in the turbulent history of Latin America. But she never bowed down to these maneuvers, which ranged from threats to her life to infamous assassination operations. lawfare that for many years they deprived her of her seat in the Senate of Colombia
Actively committed to the search for some gestures that would express the guerrilla’s desire for dialogue, she helped the unilateral release of some hostages that were in their possession. And with his tireless militancy he managed to open the way for the peace talks that would take place in Havana between the government of the then president Juan M. Santos and the leadership of the FARC-EP, with Norway, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Venezuela and Cuba.
This process would bear fruit with the signing of the agreements between the parties in 2016, raising expectations of achieving lasting peace for Colombia. However, pressure from Uribism demanded that such agreements had to be submitted to a citizen plebiscite in which the population would say whether they accepted or rejected the agreement painstakingly drawn up after long years of negotiation in Cuba. Unusual requirement, that of asking citizens whether or not they agree with putting an end to the bloodbath that was shaking Colombia. Unfortunately, those who opposed it, that is, peace, obtained a few tenths more than 50 percent of the votes and everything had to be negotiated again. This defeat, a product of the permanent bombardment that was unleashed on the population by the mass media of “disinformation and confusion” always controlled by the oligarchy, deeply affected Piedad, despite which he did not lower his arms and continued fighting until the end of his days for lasting peace and justice for his country.
Her American vocation led her to express her militant solidarity with all the good causes of the region. She was an unconditional friend of the Cuban Revolution, of Fidel and Chávez, of Evo, of Rafael Correa, of Lugo, of Lula, of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, and of all the leaders of the emancipatory processes underway in Latin America, where her popularity On a continental scale it was impressive.
She was a friend and admirer of Diego Armando Maradona for the solidarity he showed when accompanying her in his campaign for peace in Colombia in 2016. I remember her on one of her trips to Argentina, when I had to take her to a series of meetings in the center from Buenos Aires. On one occasion we were walking along Corrientes Avenue and it was impressive how many people stopped her at every step to take a photo of her with her, to congratulate her, to give her encouragement. Several bus drivers honked their horns at her and made a friendly gesture, and voices of support could be heard from the cars. I remember one: “Never die, Mercy, never. We need you!” It was a scene that common friends told me was repeated in Mexico City, Lima and La Paz, wherever Piedad walked her imposing and beautiful figure, her elegance, her kind smile, her gaze that was both sweet and steely when she she got involved in a debate or remembered the outrages to which Uribismo and its henchmen subjected her daily in her beloved Medellín.
Saturday of mourning this, of long and deep mourning, because you left, dear black woman, at a time when more than ever we needed your wisdom and your courage. Those of us who are still in this world promise you that you will never be for us, nor for future generations, a harmless icon but rather a permanent and vital source of inspiration to fight without fainting in the construction of a better world, where humanity does not run the risk. danger of its self-extinction as Fidel warned at the Rio Summit of 1992. Until victory, always!, dear Piedad.
