Cordoba flees Colombia amid death threats

[gbscar]

Cordoba flees Colombia amid death threats
Friday, 19 August 2011 06:14
Travis Mannon

Former liberal Senator Piedad Cordoba temporarily left Colombia Thursday, citing threats against her life and suspicious people following her.

According to Spanish press agency EFE, Cordoba has fled the country on advice from friends and relatives in response to the threats.

Representative Ivan Cepeda explained that Cordoba "told us that she was leaving the country because the threats have intensified and that it was an imminent attempt on her life."

Despite leaving Colombia, Cordoba explained that she will continue monitoring the peace process she recently initiated with left-wing guerrilla groups ELN and the FARC through her peace activist movement "Colombians for Peace."

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http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18433-cordoba-flees-colombia-amid-death-threats.html

Comment:

Shameful, but I certainly prefer to be reading this than a report about her murder. Hopefully it really is temporary.

Also, her lawyer is apparently saying that "important" state officials provided a warning about the plot and told her to leave.

See here (in Spanish):

http://www.caracol.com.co/nota.aspx?id=1533925

[gbscar]

1. Cordoba's lawyer confirms right-wing assassination plot

Cordoba's lawyer confirms right-wing assassination plot
Friday, 19 August 2011 11:56
Natalie Dalton

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"What obligated <Cordoba> to leave the country yesterday was the alert that there was a plan, already in action, to assassinate her and <police> asked her to leave in order to escape danger, very much to her sorrow. Important sources from within Colombia, of which I can not reveal, announced the alert," her lawyer Luis Guillermo Perez explained.

Perez also confirmed that they have recently seen an increase in personal attacks against the former senator, including attacks via social networking sites such as Twitter.

At the La Pola prison, Colombia's Interior Minister German Vargas Lleras commented that he didn't have "any knowledge about this information, I can't confirm or deny it, all that I can say is that the custodial body assigned to ex-Senator Piedad Cordoba is very complete...the Ministry of the Interior has been preparing to offer her total security."

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It was decided Wednesday, in the investigation against Cordoba for her alleged ties to the left-wing guerrilla organization FARC, that ex-President Alvaro Uribe could not be considered as a victim in the case. Then, Thursday in the ex-president's testimony for his alleged involvement in the wiretapping scandal, Uribe admitted asking DAS to investigate Cordoba following the death of one of the ex-senator’s escorts, which she had blamed on the government.

Cordoba's lawyer confirmed that she will continue her attempt to negotiate for the end of the armed conflict, despite the backlash she has received, and that her exile will be only temporary.

http://www.colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/18445-cordobas-lawyer-confirms-right-wing-assassination-plot.html