Mar 31 Piedad Cordoba Leads Hostage Liberation in Colombia
Colombians for peace, Latin America, Militarisation Add comments
By Eva Golinger
Correo del Orinoco International
The Colombian Senator, herself and her daughter once hostages of right-wing paramilitary forces, has been leading peace efforts in the country for years. Despite sabotage by the Colombian government, Cordoba and her group, Colombians For Peace, were able to free two more hostages this week. The world kept up with the emotional developments via TwitterUPDATE: BY THE TIME OF THIS POSTING, PABLO EMILIO MONCAYO HAS BEEN RELEASED TO FREEDOM AFTER 12 YEARS OF CAPTIVITY!
“They closed the helicopter doors, it’s still really loud, Colombia, give peace a chance!”, read one of Piedad Cordoba’s tweets early Sunday (@piedadcordoba) , as she boarded the helicopter that just hours later, brought Josue Calvo home. The Colombian Senator has been leading peace efforts for several years in her country, which has been plagued with a 60-year old civil war between right and left forces.
Colombia erupted in national violence after Jorge Gaitan’s assassination in 1948, which many believe was attributed to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Gaitan was a charismatic leader, a leftist and a revolutionary, who was set to win the presidential elections before his assassination, during a time when Washington was overly eager to stop the spread of communism in the region. Ten years of non-stop violence followed in Colombia, later transforming into a civil war that has never ceased.
Though the armed leftist groups are classified as “terrorist” by Washington and the current Colombian government, the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), are still the remnants of the organizations that struggled against the imposition of the right-wing elite that has ruled the country since Gaitan’s death. Paramilitary groups – linked to the current Uribe government – were formed to combat the FARC and the ELN, and subsequently became involved in Colombia’s mass drug trade.
As the years and decades passed, kidnappings became a major tactic used by both sides to impose a state of fear and terror over civilian populations, and extort the other side for money and political and territorial gains.
More:
http://colombiasolidarity.net/2010/03/piedad-cordoba-leads-hostage-liberation-in-colombia/#more-351