The Afro-Colombian Senator Piedad Córdoba traveled to Newark, New Jersey and was honored by the non-profit Norma Lozano Jackson Foundation (http://NLJF.org) for her work as a peace negotiator in war-torn Colombia.
Senator Piedad Córdoba with Dr Norma Jackson of the NLJ Foundation.

Karen Juanita Carrillo 
Senator Córdoba is a lawyer by trade and as  Dr. Jackson said in her introduction, “Senator Cordoba is recognized for her tireless efforts to obtain the inclusion of Colombian minorities in all aspects of society... The humanitarian agreement that would allow the release of all kidnapped individuals presently in the jungles of Colombia is part of the Senator’s daily struggle. She strongly opposes a military solution to the armed conflict in Colombia. 

Piedad Esneda Córdoba Ruiz – the niece of Diego Luis Córdoba, the leading politician behind the creation of the state of El Chocó – has become well-known in her home country as the principal figure behind a peace movement that has helped to free civilian hostages caught up in the fighting between the government and guerrilla forces.  

In 2007, Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe had named Córdoba the official government mediator to help free hostages being held by groups like the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN).   But as Piedad began negotiations and brought in Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez to aid her, the Uribe administration backed away from supporting her efforts.

Together, Senator Córdoba and President Chávez have been able to broker the release of at least 22 hostages, with the help of the International Committee of the Red Cross and with logistical aid from Brazil (the government claims the rebels have some 700 hostages under their control). And Piedad’s group, Colombianos por la Paz/Colombians for Peace (www.colombianosporlapaz.com), has become an important voice in the struggle for negotiating a peace to Colombia’s on-going civil war.  The organization has spoken out in opposition to the Uribe’s administration’s current path of fighting for peace by attacking the guerrillas with the nation’s military.

“The government really has to make a logistic choice to work for peace, but they just haven’t done that because Uribe is more interested in liberating the hostages militarily,” Senator Córdoba told me in a conversation. 

“On the part of the government, the discourse towards peace is just not there – even though the majority of Colombians want peace.”  The senator noted that Uribe has won admirers in the United States, even among Colombians who now reside here.  She believes that because these Colombians no longer live in their native land, they have had to rely on media images of Uribe, which paint him as bringing security to the country.

But while the Uribe administration has brought greater security to some areas, it has more pointedly contained the fighting against the guerrillas in other areas.  And the bulk of those areas are in districts with large Afro Colombian populations.  “The majority of the victims of the military stance the government has taken are Afro Colombians,” the senator noted.  

While in the United States, Senator Córdoba spoke with representatives of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) and TransAfrica and asked them to support her organizations’ push for peace in Colombia. The senator’s group, Colombianos por la Paz, has recently faced obstacles from the Colombian media because they are so steadfast in their push for peace:  “We are being labeled as terrorists by the government, but we’ve been able to instill in Colombians the idea that we can not live in peace while some 50,000 people have been disappeared or while some six million people have been displaced from their lands.  Our money is going to fund the war instead of building schools or hospitals.  We’ve gotten people to understand that we should at least have a dialogue about this.”