Senator Piedad Córdoba, of the ruling Historical Pact, died this Saturday, at the age of 68, at the Conquistadores Clinic in Medellín as a result of a heart attack, as confirmed by several sources, including President Gustavo Petro. Colombian politics was one of the prominent allies of the Cuban regime in the region.
In 2017, at the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery in Santiago de Cuba, Córdoba announced before the mausoleum that houses the ashes of Fidel Castro that he would launch to the presidential race in Colombiaa project that failed because the polls ended up benefiting the lawyer Iván Duque on that occasion.
At that moment, Córdoba made a prayer at Castro’s tomb: “so that he enlightens me with his energy and gives me the strength and endurance for a task that is going to be very difficult.” The official Cuban media widely echoed that plea although, after the electoral failure, the senator’s name gradually disappeared from the front pages of the Island.
Born in Medellín in 1955, the Colombian is among the few people who were able to visit and interact with Fidel Castro after the diverticulitis crisis that forced him to abandon the public exercise of power in the summer of 2006 and delegate the presidency to his brother Raúl. In one of those meetings, the former Cuban ruler gave him an autographed copy of his book The strategic victory.
However, the Colombian’s relationship with the Cuban regime and its allies in the region went back much further. At the beginning of this century, Córdoba, at that time a senator for the Liberal Party, served as mediator, along with the then Venezuelan president, Hugo Chávez, for the release of several kidnapped by the FARC guerrilla.
Due to her links with the Colombian guerrilla, in 2010 the then attorney general, Alejandro Ordóñez, dismissed her and disqualified her for 18 years.
Due to her links with the Colombian guerrilla, 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 illegal group, FARC.”
The investigation began from the documents found in the computers of the former number two of the FARC, Luis Edgar Devia, alias Raul Reyeswho died in a bombing by Colombian aviation in Ecuador on March 1, 2008.
Córdoba was in the shadows for a few years but after his conviction was annulled he returned to politics, heeding a call from Petro.
“A fascist attorney expelled her from the Senate and mocked her voters, I wanted to make up for the damage and helped her be part of the list of the Historical Pact, I felt she deserved it,” the president added this Saturday.
In January 2023, the Colombian Government extradited Álvaro Córdoba, the senator’s brother, to the United States. Piedad’s relative 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.”
Until this Saturday afternoon, the official Cuban press had only published a discreet obituary of Córdobaalthough it is expected that in the next few hours Havana’s tribute will be expressed in institutional messages.
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