Opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba Wednesday received the explicit support of Liberal Party presidential candidate Rafael Pardo who said she is being stigmatized.
Cordoba is highly controversial in Colombia for her outspoken opposition to the policies of President Alvaro Uribe, her friendship with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and her attempts to force peace talks between the government and the country's largest rebel group FARC.
However, internationally the Senator is praised for her efforts to bring forth a peace dialogue and her mediation with the FARC resulting the release of political hostages held by the guerrillas. Cordoba was recently tipped as the most probable to win this year's Nobel Peace Prize by a prominent Norwegian peace activist.
"Piedad Cordoba has been stigmatized and deserves to win the prize for her great work," Pardo said in an interview on Caracol Radio.
The Uribe administration has regularly accused Cordoba of being allies with the FARC and called her 'Colombians for Peace group' "the FARC's intellectual bloc."
The winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize will be announced on Friday.
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Comments (14)
Andrewmann552
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... Cordoba is just one example of how scary the situation is inside Colombia for those who speak out against Uribe. With Cordoba it's almost like George Orwell's "1984" where the Big Brother government puts a face on a movie screen, instructing the audience to hate that person for no logical reason other than defiance of the state. |
LG
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... Andrewmann552, I can see clearly that you are not a Colombian and does not live here (Colombia) also. Piedad Cordoba should not win the nobel prize and it would be a disgrace for that institution if the price is awarded to her since she is tied with the FARC. She is a traitor to our country, our people and to our democracy. In fact, she should be brought to justice for treason against our country since she attended a FARC meeting planning to bring down our goverment last year. I would be ashamed of being Colombian if she gets the price. Thank god we have Gabriel Garcia Marquez who truly has noble fiber not like the traitor of Piedad Cordoba. |
Adriaan
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... LG, She is accused of being tied to the FARC by a government who is accused to be tied to paramilitary factions. Accusations both ways are not proven and if taken for truth are stigmas. |
LG
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... Alvaro Uribe has 70% of popularity in our country, he is, without a doubt, the greatest president in the history of our nation. It has been the only one who has given severe blows to the "far" (without the "C", since they don't represent our country) in this 50 year battle in which far has killed, tortured, kidnapped thousands of Colombians. If the nobel is bought for her, the institution would be in line with the views of this criminial and terrorist group. NO MORE FAR, NO MORE PIEDAD CORDOBA!! |
LG
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... To all the inelligent people out there, we want to show who is Piedad Cordoba, a far puppet, please join hte group in facebook "NO AL PREMIO NOBEL DE PAZ PARA PIEDAD CORDOBA!!". |
Adriaan
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... By the way, on the facebook page is the e-mail addy of Kristian Berg, the director of the PRIO who recently speculated Córdoba made the best chance of winning. The facebook page says he is director of the Nobel committee, which he is not. He has nothing to do with the prize and did not even endorse her. he just estimated she has the biggest chance. |
andresparra1980
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... Her efforts had always been based on political interests rather than humanitarian, although she has been an important part of 16 hostage being released which the country and President Uribe had acknowledge and that is why she has been encouraged by the government to keep working with the church and the Red Cross International ONLY (not with other countries) to keep negotiating more releases with the FARC. The debate here in Colombia is that FARC, Chavez and Cordoba had been using the hostage releases as political currency to gain control over the Colombian public opinion with no positive results so far, except of course the release of some hostages. The leftist party which is the Polo Democratico NOT the liberal Party is an example of the strength of the Colombian Democracy because they as well as the other opposition parties such as the Liberal (and i repeat, they are not leftist) have all the warranties in Colombia to operate and express their opinion at all levels. Colombia has probably one of the strongest Democracies in this hemisphere so giving the Nobel Prize to Cordoba would be like giving it to one of the reigning dictators in the world today which is Hugo Chavez Frias President of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. |
Andrewmann552
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... LG, Andresparra, interesting how people like you only post under these articles. Where were you guys when Colombia Reports posted articles on the UN declaring that 50% of Colombia is going hungry, or earlier this week when an article appeared on Uribe having control over 8 state institutions which should be independent? Sadly, you guys sound like the audience members I described from Orwell's novel in my first post. Andresparra, you seriously consider Chavez the reigning dictator? Over Egypt's Mubarak, Honduras' Micheletti, Mexico's Calderon, the Saudi monarchy? Really? Wow, hate really does blind people. |
andresparra1980
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... Hello Andrewmann552, Actually Calderon is not a dictator for what i know, being a center-right president does not mean a president is a dictator nor being a center-left like Fernandez from Argentina, Correa from Ecuador and Lula from Brazil. Let the Chavez debate for other time. About hate, i don't think hate has anything to do with this, at least in my case, Mrs. Cordoba should be a valid candidate for the Nobel Prize if she continues to work under certain conditions, those which are now on the table and she has accepted, the church and the ICRC which is the way to go. Let's not forget that FARC-EP had their chance to negotiate to the Colombian Goverment in Pastrana's administration and they made a fool of Colombia by using the Demilitarized Zone to enforce their military power as well as to kidnap and terrorize our Country. Uribe's administration HAD to take control of the institutions that had been infiltrated using coercion and corruption by terrorist groups and organized crime over decades.................. |
andresparra1980
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... .........Of course that control has been established using the control entities of the state which are the Procuraduria and the Contraloria (don't know the translation) and i believe a change in the power would legitimize the efforts to bring transparency to the institutions, hence i don't support Uribe's re-election. Anyway Colombia is one of the more complex nations in the world with heavy political polarity and filled with ethical and moral contradictions in the execution of power, legislation and jurisprudence. |
Adriaan
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... @ Andresparra1980, Are you available for the 2010 Presidency by any chance? I think I want to vote for you  @ Andrewmann552, You're such a regular commenter, please register, so I don't have to always approve your comments |
Andrewmann552
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... The idea that Mexico actually has a functioning democracy is quite laughable, but that, like Chavez, is a matter for another time and discussion board. So you are saying Colombia's institutions are so weak they need strongman authority? This is the same argument of the Fujimoristas in Peru, at least the ones still loyal to the man even after all the revelations and court sentences. We're not talking here about Uribe cleaning up corrupt institutions, we're talking about a man taking advantage of a crisis to manipulate them to his own use. I recommend you read the original Colombia Reports article. "Colombia is one of the more complex nations in the world with heavy political polarity and filled with ethical and moral contradictions in the execution of power, legislation and jurisprudence," that's an easy cop out and can be universally applied to various examples and countries. I applaud you for not supporting Uribe's reelection, but you simplify the situation with FARC, remember that there was a time in the 1980s-1990s when they were close to becoming a political party, but the process was disrupted by death squads, which still operate heavily in the Colombian highlands if not the cities, with full support by the Colombian oligarchy. I recommend the book "Beyond Bogota" By Garry Leech, an excellent work of scholarship on this matter, as well as "Evil Hour In Colombia" by Forest Hylton. |
andresparra1980
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... Hello Andrewmann552, apparently you have strong left side political positions, as a Colombian I support Uribe's policies, applaud his ambition to regain state control of the rural areas and his efforts to stimulate investment in the country. Now democracy and pluralism without a president candidate should allow different approaches to project the country to the next decade. I assure you that in Colombia Alvaro Uribe Velez will be remembered as the best president of our nation history despite all criticism and even Left wing candidate Gustavo Petro, a former M-19 guerrilla member, expresses that Uribe's "Seguridad Democratica" policies should be sustained in his hypothetical presidency, which is quite possible to happen. I disconnect from this article's posts and hope to see you at the "Piedad Cordoba Nobel Prize Laureate" highly probable article. Kind Regards. |
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