Colombian Senator Piedad Cordoba did not attend the Inspector General’s official reading of the “FARC-politics” charges against her Monday, but over 200 people rallied outside the building in a show of support for the “Colombians for peace” leader.
Cordoba did not attend the charges reading on the advice of her lawyers.
The Inspector General presented the charges against the senator based on alleged evidence seized from the computers of the late FARC leader “Raul Reyes,” and said that Cordoba had betrayed her country by calling for other Latin American to break relations with Colombia.
Cordoba has denied the FARC-politics accusations on many occasions, saying that she is being prosecuted for the “crime of opinion,” and that the charges are “persecution,” which “come from the presidency.”
The senator describes herself as “a constant defender of human rights and [who wants to find] a negotiated solution to the armed conflict that the country has lived for decades, which doesn’t make me a promoter of armed battle.”
Cordoba has been instrumental in negotiating the liberation of FARC hostages.
In regards to this role Cordoba commented that “all my actions as a facilitator in the liberation of FARC held hostages and the humanitarian exchange have been carried out with compliance to legal norms and withe express authorization of the national government.”
Cordoba said that she was disposed to provide the explications and evidence necessary to “rebut the charges” of her alleged links to the FARC.
The senator recently cut short a trip to Europe, where she was campaigning for a “humanitarian exchange” of FARC hostages for incarcerated guerrillas, in order to return to Colombia to deal with the charges against her.