Former Senator Piedad Cordoba said she will not lobby the Colombian government for peace talks with the FARC, but will concentrate her efforts on the agenda of her activist group Colombians For Peace, magazine Terra Colombia reported Wednesday.
However, Cordoba, who helped organize the release of FARC hostages in February, said that if Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos were to call a meeting, she would be available.
“When he requires it, we are not interested in pushing anything, we have our own agenda, we believe that it should coincide with all of the peace work that the president should be doing, and we can contribute and work hand in hand with the government,” Cordoba told Caracol Radio.
The former senator announced that she would continue to hold meetings to discuss proposals for peace in Colombia, for which she is planning a tour throughout Latin America and in the United States. Cordoba said she will maintain her work aimed at the “humanization of the war in Colombia” and hopes to manage new releases of hostages.
Former Senator Piedad Cordoba has been requesting authorization from the president to talk to the FARC and mediate a political way out of Colombia’s 45-year-long armed conflict between state and leftist rebels.
Santos on Wednesday warned the FARC against continued violence saying, “By reason or by force, we are going to achieve a peaceful country.”
