Colombia: Ex-Senator Cordoba Rejects US Conspiracy Against Her

[Judi Lynn]

Former senator Piedad Cordoba, Colombia, Feb. 22, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @vidabellav

Published 23 February 2022

On Tuesday, former Senator Piedad Cordoba denounced that an email from the Colombian embassy in Washington asked her for money in exchange for allowing her access to a private video related to her political career.

According to what the leftist social activist knows, the video shows the Colombian ambassador in Washington Juan Pinzon and the U.S. State Undersecretary for the Western Hemisphere Michael Kozak conspiring against her.

"For accessing to this information, I was asked to give a financial compensation, something I refused to do since it was a clear extortion false entrapment action," Cordoba said, adding that the email was signed by the Embassy's economic consultant Mario Hernandez.

"The person who contacted me insisted we should have a personal appointment given that Kozak and Pinzon wanted my extradition to the U.S. to prevent me from running in the March legislative election as a candidate of the Historic Pact," Cordoba pointed out.

More:
https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Colombia-Ex-Senator-Cordoba-Rejects-US-Conspiracy-Against-Her-20220223-0007.html

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Senator Piedad Cordoba visited Reps. Nancy Pelosi and James McGovern on a
trip to Washington, D.C.

The US-supported Colombian right-wing has been trying to destroy Piedad for decades:


SG/SM/7000
24 MAY 1999
SECRETARY-GENERALSTATEMENTS AND MESSAGES
SECRETARY-GENERAL CONDEMNS KIDNAPPING OF SENATOR PIEDAD CORDOBA DE CASTRO OF COLOMBIA
24 May 1999

Press Release
SG/SM/7000

SECRETARY-GENERAL CONDEMNS KIDNAPPING OF SENATOR PIEDAD CORDOBA DE CASTRO OF COLOMBIA

19990524
The following statement was issued today by the Office of the Spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan:

The Secretary-General condemns the kidnapping of Senator Piedad Cordoba de Castro. The Senator, a firm supporter of peace and President of the Colombian Senate's Commission on Human Rights, has performed invaluable work towards the achievement of fundamental rights and freedoms. The Secretary- General expresses his hope that she will be released soon, and urges the Colombian authorities to do everything possible to this end.

* *** *
https://www.un.org/press/en/1999/19990524.SGSM7000.html

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A Chilling Crime Network Rears Its Head in Colombia
BY JUANITA DARLING
MARCH 16, 2000 12 AM PT
TIMES STAFF WRITER

MEDELLIN, Colombia — Sen. Piedad Cordoba knew she was a target.
As chairwoman of the Senate Human Rights Committee in this country where politicians are regularly kidnapped or assassinated, she had alienated guerrillas, right-wing private armies and even members of the government.

Still, Colombians were shocked when she and her bodyguard were surrounded by 15 armed people in uniforms of national investigative police at a clinic in the fashionable El Poblado district of this violent city. With so many powerful enemies, who had pulled off the audacious midday kidnapping?

Nine months after the senator was released unharmed by paramilitary leader Carlos Castano, prosecutors think they have the answer. They believe that Castano had hired the job out to La Terraza, the most powerful criminal organization operating in Colombia since drug baron Pablo Escobar was gunned down by police in 1993.

The kidnapping was the first firm link between urban organized crime related to drug trafficking and Castano’s rural federation of seven right-wing anti-insurgency forces, which have an estimated strength of 11,000 troops and their own narcotics ties.

More:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2000-mar-16-mn-9425-story.html

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Ex-paramilitary to answer for Piedad Cordoba kidnapping
by Esteban Refshauge October 5, 2012

A former commander of the now-demobilized paramilitary group AUC will face punishment for the kidnapping of Piedad Cordoba, reported local media Friday.

A Colombian judge has ordered ex-paramilitary leader Ivan Roberto Duque, alias “Ernesto Baez,” to serve a subsequent prison sentence for the kidnapping of ex-senator Piedad Cordoba.

Duque, who is currently incarcerated in a maximum security prision in Itagui in the central northwest Antioquia department on separate charges, was accused of facilitating the kidnapping of high-profile Liberal Senator Piedad Cordoba in May 1999. Cordoba’s kidnapping caused popular outrage and she was released after two weeks.

The kidnapping charge was first brought against Duque on December 3, 2009. At the time, prosecutors also held him responsible for crimes of homicide, conspiracy and recruitment of minors.

More:
https://colombiareports.com/ex-paramilitary-to-answer-for-piedad-cordoba-kidnapping/

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Colombian negotiator Piedad Cordoba flees death threats
Published19 August 2011



Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba, 11 March 2010

Piedad Cordoba said she would return to Colombia as soon as she could
Colombian peace campaigner and former Senator Piedad Cordoba has left the country after receiving death threats.

She has negotiated the release of a number of hostages held by the Farc guerrilla group, but the government accused her of helping the rebels.

She was banned from public office for 18 years.

Ms Cordoba's lawyer said the death threats had intensified following her latest attempts to get the rebels to the negotiating table.

Lawyer Luis Guillermo Perez said the intimidation had been "constant, and she was told an attack was being planned to kill her".

More:
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-14598633?piano-modal

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10/02/2020 Colombia

Piedad Córdoba: this is how the investigation goes into the attack against her bodyguards – Crimes – Justice

At this time, the hearings of legalization of capture and imputation of charges are held in the courts of Paloquemao against the 20-year-old, who was captured on Wednesday night for participating in an attack on two bodyguards of the National Protection Unit, UNP.

The young man will be charged with the crimes of theft and illegal possession of firearms. The escorts involved are part of the security scheme of former senator Piedad Córdoba, whom they had left at her home an hour earlier, the report said.

The man arrested, according to sources from the Bogotá Police, does not register any antecedents. Similarly, the uniformed men located in the Patio Bonito sector, in a parking lot, the car in which the criminals apparently were transported.

The car, according to the expert opinion carried out, had false plates – CYK 071 – which in the jargon is known as a twin.

More:
https://tricksfast.com/colombia/piedad-cordoba-this-is-how-the-investigation-goes-into-the-attack-against-her-bodyguards-crimes-justice/