Colombian hostage negotiator and former senator Piedad Cordoba is the host of a new documentary program examining social justice in Latin America and the Caribbean.
“Just Cause” premiered Monday on Venezuelan television channel Telesur with a program on discriminatory immigration policies for Haitians living in the Dominican Republic, titled “Civil Death.”
In the show Cordoba interviewed Haitian families affected by the policies, experts on the issue and President of the Dominican Republic Leonel Fernandez Reyna.
“For me it was a bit difficult to interview the president because I wanted …. to say, liar, liar, you have not done anything,” she said.
Cordoba reminded local media she was not a journalist nor a presenter. She said she was intimidated by how she might look on television, but added she forgot that preoccupation as soon as she began the interviews.
“Just Cause” provides a space to show how societies are dehumanized and for them to raise their voices,” Cordoba said at the show’s launch.
The 13-episode series will include investigations into mining conflicts in Colombia, which Cordoba called “embarrassing.”
“The mining in Colombia is quite embarrassing, to say the least, embarrassing for the way [companies] are given the country’s resources and the way they are making decisions,” she said.