{Progressive Senator) Colombian drawing fire for efforts to free hostages

[Judi Lynn]

Colombian drawing fire for efforts to free hostages
mcclatchy-tribune
March 30, 2008
BOGOTA, Colombia

Sen. Piedad Cordoba emerged from the Senate chamber on a recent night, clutching her side.

"My stomach hurts," she told an aide. "It's all this stress."

No wonder. Ten bodyguards accompany her around Colombia after a series of death threats. People on the street insult her, and she must wait in a secure place for other passengers to board an airplane before she gets on, after a verbal altercation at Bogota's airport in January.

A kidnap victim herself who has long worked on behalf of Colombia's dispossessed, Cordoba has been in the headlines over the past three months for her work to secure the freedom of six hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla group known as the FARC.
(snip)

"They've always tried to shut me up," Cordoba told The Miami Herald during several interviews that started in Bogota and ended in Caracas. "I'm against the Establishment. Many people on the left don't want to rock the Establishment and not be invited to cocktail parties. Nobody invites me. The only list I'm on is of those to be killed."

Cordoba said she has already survived eight attempts on her life. One killed two of her police guards, while another maimed her driver.
(snip)

In 1999, right-wing paramilitaries kidnapped her, but public appeals secured her freedom 16 days later. She took a leave from the Senate and fled to Montreal, where she went to work for the United Nations. She returned to Colombia two years later and was re-elected to the 102-member Senate.

More:
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nation/bal-te.colombia30mar30,0,3819626.story?track=rss







Senator Piedad Cordoba meeting Nancy Pelosi and Jim McGovern

[Peace Patriot]

1. Funny how Bush tool Uribe is now trying to cop the hostage release headlines--

after calling the Presidents of Ecuador and Venezuela "terrorist-lovers" for doing the same, and knowing that the Presidents of France and Argentina were also involved, and after slaughtering the chief FARC hostage negotiator in his sleep along with 24 others, on the eve of the release of 12 more hostages to the President of Ecuador, and after pillorying Senator Cordoba for her lengthy, difficult, dangerous efforts to get hostages released and create peace in Colombia, and after tolerating paramilitary death squads who would kill her, and furthermore being closely tied to military/paramilitary assassination plotters against President Chavez.

Now Uribe's all hostage-loving, trying to stoke the milk train of billions of U.S. dollars in military aid, and get a "free trade" deal (free fire zone to kill union leaders) for Colombia.

Uribe is so sickening.

------------

Thanks for the photos of Sen. Cordoba! Is that not Raul Reyes seated at the table with her?

[Judi Lynn]

2. That's what I thought the moment I saw it. Here's a description of what was happening:

The FARC process comes to Washington

FARC Hostages, U.S. Policy

There is still no way to tell whether the intermediation of Hugo Chávez and Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba is going to bring freedom for the FARC’s hostages any closer. Nonetheless, the video of Sen. Córdoba’s visit to top FARC leader Raúl Reyes in Colombia’s jungles last week (viewable on YouTube) offers some clues about likely next steps.

Here is a translation of the part of the video where (with much prompting from Sen. Córdoba) Reyes talks about timing. It is a bit surprising how often the United States comes up in this segment - both the possible participation of U.S. congresspeople and consultations with relatives of the three U.S. citizen hostages. The importance of Washington’s possible role is further underlined by Sen. Córdoba’s presence here in Washington today.

RR: I want to say that the letters we have sent, particularly the one from Comandante-in-Chief Manuel Marulanda, illustrate very well our will to work for this accord. This will imply, surely, several meetings, it will mean much time, much patience and perseverance, persistence. We have all of these, as do you and the senator .

We want to talk to you, as we have expressed publicly and I repeat, that surely the conversation with Comandante Marulanda should happen at some time. But first, before that, we must have other previous conversations to clear the way and allow you to know the FARC and all of its proposals. That is why time will be needed, and we are willing.

PC: Would there be a preparatory meeting, Comandante Reyes?

RR: Yes, I think it is necessary to have one or two preparatory meetings. With members of the Secretariat or other cadres the commander-in-chief will assign for this mission.

PC: But could this preparatory meeting happen more quickly? It would be good if it could happen soon.

RR: We would like it as soon as possible, and we are willing to make it happen in the near future. However, it depends on many circumstances, but I think we can resolve that it not be too late. For example, a good date to meet with Comandante Chavez would be October 8. That is a historic date, the date that Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara was murdered in Bolivia.

At this opportunity I want to highlight the importance of a meeting with the Democratic members of the U.S. Congress, so that they can contribute to this objective of an exchange. I think that with the help of the international community, we can achieve the goal of a humanitarian exchange. And this could be the key, the entry point, the road, to move to the objectives of peace, to the political exit from the conflict. …

PC: A meeting between President Chávez and relatives of the three detained U.S. citizens would be important. …

RR: I also find important that President Chávez might meet with the relatives of the three U.S. citizens.

More:
http://www.cipcol.org/?p=471

and here's the You Tube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Dj94-PVu4PA

I saw a reference to her at You Tube as "La Perla Negra." I presume that means "the black pearl."

[Judi Lynn]

3. A Lawmaker Whose Nation Dislikes Her Friends by NY Times Simon Romero

(Simon Romero has been a relentless corporate media mouthpiece in true Judith Miller fashion, focused on Latin America, and anti-leftist leaders, pro-Bush's Uribe)

A Lawmaker Whose Nation Dislikes Her Friends



Scott Dalton for The New York Times
“I suppose I’m somewhat unique. But Colombia will just have to get used to me because I’m not going away.” Piedad Córdoba

By SIMON ROMERO
Published: March 1, 2008

~Like Mr. Uribe, Ms. Córdoba is a lawyer; both are from Antioquia, the economically vibrant province that has Medellín as its capital. But the similarities end there, with Ms. Córdoba emerging as one of the most outspoken critics of Mr. Uribe, the scion of a powerful landholding family.

Ms. Córdoba said her propensity to speak out originated during her childhood in Medellín as the daughter of a black man and a white woman, both teachers.

“My family and I were considered extraterrestrials,” she said. “I understand what it’s like to be different, which is why I defend homosexuals, women, blacks, anyone I can.”

While at college in Medellín, Ms. Córdoba said she was attracted to the theater and revolutionary ideas, but she avoided the guerrilla groups gaining momentum at the time, defining herself as a pacifist. Later, she got her start in politics as the private secretary of a former mayor of Medellín, William Jaramillo Gómez, emerging as his protégée.

YET while Ms. Córdoba has won recognition for supporting Colombia’s minorities, her warm ties with the country’s leftist guerrillas go too far for many Colombians, even if they privately acknowledge she may be one of the only people who can win the release of the FARC’s captives.

Ernesto Samper, the former Colombian president, said he got a sense of the emotions Ms. Córdoba elicits when he recently entered a barber shop in Bogotá where two women were arguing about politics. One of the women hated Ms. Córdoba, Mr. Samper said, while the other one loved her.

“It’s a mistake to think her political career is over,” Mr. Samper said in a telephone interview.

And so Ms. Córdoba presses ahead with this new phase, which has her spending about as much time in Caracas, in the corridors of Mr. Chávez’s palace and the Meliá, as she does in Bogotá. Asked about comments in Colombia that she should simply stay in Venezuela, Ms. Córdoba flashed a smile and said she had no plan to do so.

“It’s not surprising,” she said, laughing. “In Colombia, with my face, my turban, my words, I’m Public Enemy No. 1.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/01/world/americas/01cordoba.html?_r=1&em&ex=1204520400&en=bb9dc23c9398bec8&ei=5087%0A&oref=slogin