Photo of a portrait of Senator Piedad Córdoba during a funeral ceremony in Medellín, Colombia. EFE/Luis Eduardo Noriega Arboleda
Medellín, January 23 (EFE). – Between red roses, symbols and songs, the Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba, who died last Saturday, was buried this Tuesday in Medellín, where family, friends and supporters praised her political career, remembered her struggles and showed posters with the inscription “Eternal Compassion”.
“Peace shines in the eyes of my people,” was the chorus that could be heard in front of the Santa Lucía church, where, among others, members of the ruling coalition Historic Pact, Afro groups and community leaders awaited the arrival of the coffin Senator for her honorable burial.
The funeral of the late politician began on Saturday in Medellín, the city where she was born on January 25, 1955, with a street of honor, flowers and the cry of “Thank you Piedad for all the seeds you left behind”.
The governor of Chocó, Nubia, Carolina Córdoba, attended the mass in the parish of Santa Lucía; the Senator of the Historical Pact Aida Avella and Pastor Alape, one of the leaders of the Comunes party that emerged from the demobilization of the FARC.
Before leaving for the Jardines de Montesacro cemetery, the “great matron” was praised by the Federation of Local Councils and Grassroots Organizations of the Black Communities of Antioquia, particularly for the defense of Afro-peoples through her political work or the use of colored turbans as his personal brand.
As a prelude to a symbolic act in which butterflies and white doves flew and the coffin was not only covered with the flag of the left-wing Patriotic Union party, Juan Luis Castro, the senator's son, reconstructed and illuminated his mother's career in a text Life full of “processes, of struggles”.
“I never thought I would bury my mother like that, I thought they would kill her one day,” confessed Juan Luis, who was also a congressman.
“Just because I was Piedad Córdoba's son, they had wiretapped me and my brothers, my family and their advisors, destroyed cars and homes, checked bank records, searched our garbage and much more,” he added.
He also recalled when the senator was linked to the release of kidnapped people: “Thanks to her management of this process, 26 people are now free.”
And he concluded his speech with his mother's definition: “Piedad Córdoba, as they say in my country, you are made for bullets.”
Córdoba, a figure of the Liberal Party known for his left-wing positions that earned him both sympathy and antipathy, had a long career marked by political struggles, controversies even outside the country and his commitment to peace .
The tributes to Córdoba began on Sunday with the transfer of the coffin to Quibdó, the capital of the Chocó (West) department, where his paternal family comes from and where he had an important voter base among the Afro-Colombian population.
Her body was later transported to Bogotá, where she was received in a cremation chamber at the Congress of the Republic.
The senator's death was mourned by the Colombian political class and by Latin American leaders such as the presidents of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, and Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, as well as former presidents such as Argentina's Cristina Fernández (2007-2015). or the Bolivian Evo Morales.