Solidarity with Piedad Córdoba

In busy midtown Manhattan on Dec. 11, a diverse group of around 30 solidarity activists — from Colombia, Ecuador, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Puerto Rico and Venezuela, along with others from the New York metropolitan area — took the message of “Justice for Colombian Sen. Piedad Córdoba” to the Consulate General of Colombia.

The activity was organized by the Committee in Solidarity with Piedad Córdoba and endorsed and supported by the New York Bolivarian Circle “Alberto Lovera” and the Latin America-Caribbean Solidarity Committee of the International Action Center.

The consulate is open on one Saturday a month for the Colombian community, and there is a constant line of people waiting to get inside of the building. Some joined the activity after they were finished with their business inside.

Many were receptive to the anti-imperialist message of justice and solidarity for one of Latin America’s most respected and well-known woman freedom fighters.

Sen. Córdoba, an Afro-Colombian feminist, has been an elected official in Colombia for more than 20 years. She has been a member of the City Council of Medellín, the State Assembly of Antioquía and since 1994 a member of the Chamber of Representatives of Colombia. She is a lawyer and has always been a strong supporter for the rights of Colombians, particularly of those who suffer most oppression: women, Afro-Colombians, Indigenous people and the LGBTQ community.

In 1999 she was kidnapped by a right-wing death squad and forced into exile in Canada for more than a year. Since then she has been active in trying to resolve the internal armed conflict in Colombia and has promoted the anti-imperialist drive for Latin American solidarity.

Most recently she has been a target of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), which is the Colombian equivalent of the FBI. On Sept. 27 her credentials as a senator were revoked by the Inspector General of Colombia, and she was banned from holding public office for 18 years!

The solidarity campaign for Piedad Córdoba is worldwide. And it is most important in the U.S., which provides hundreds of millions of dollars a year to the right-wing Colombian bourgeoisie and allows them to hold on to power against the popular forces that Piedad Córdoba represents.