Colombian opposition Senator Piedad Cordoba said Saturday that an investigation into her alleged ties with the guerrillas is a politically motivated "farce."
"I'm absolutely convinced that it's a farce. What I see is a very clear strategy to discredit me, but I'm not going into exile and I'm not going to hide. I'm going to face up to" any allegations that are made, Cordoba said.
The Inspector General's Office - a public institution charged with overseeing the public conduct of those in authority - has opened a disciplinary investigation into Cordoba and two other opposition lawmakers, Gloria Ines Ramirez and Wilson Borja, for their supposed links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla organization.
Prosecutors say they found evidence of those possible ties on
computers belonging to a top rebel commander, Raul Reyes, who was
killed last year in a Colombian army raid on his clandestine camp in
Ecuador.
I don't believe in the computers," said the legislator, who added that she has no idea how prosecutors could have proof of supposed e-mails between her and Reyes, saying that no such correspondence took place.
"That's the result of a plot to put the people against me," she said.
Cordoba commented on the investigation upon arriving from the United States, where she had traveled to meet with Colombian former paramilitary chiefs jailed in that country.
"I hope it's an objective (investigation) with all the guarantees," she said, adding that she hopes she hasn't been targeted for not supporting the nomination of Inspector General Alejandro Ordoñez, or because her political positions "in search of reconciliation and peace annoy some sectors." She added that in her meeting in the United States with the erstwhile leaders of the ostensibly demobilized AUC militias federation, including Salvatore Mancuso, they confirmed that paramilitary squads continue to operate in Colombia even though more than 31,000 militiamen turned in their weapons at mid-decade as part of a peace process with President Alvaro Uribe's government.
"I gained a good understanding of how they operate based on what they told me and that's what we have to combat to end the conflict rather than just demonizing all of us who think differently in the country," she said.
The IG's office on Friday announced its decision to open an investigation into the three lawmakers and asked the Attorney General's Office to hand over evidence in its possession, including "the document ... that contains the information collected in the operation in which ... Raul Reyes was killed." Ordoñez also said last week that his office would open a "preliminary investigation" into congressman Jorge Robledo and Bogota councilman Jaime Caycedo, both with the leftist PDA party, for presumed links to the FARC.
Cordoba, who was kidnapped a decade ago by rightist paramilitaries in Medellin, Colombia's second city, is a controversial figure in her homeland.
Middle- and upper-class Colombians despise her for her harsh criticism of popular, hard-line President Alvaro Uribe and for joining leftist Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez last year in calling for the FARC to be removed from a list of terrorist groups.
The FARC, which once held dozens of politicians for political leverage in its decades-old armed struggle, has handed over several of its "high-value" hostages to delegations led by Cordoba.
But Uribe recently barred the senator from acting as mediator in
the release of a soldier held by the guerrillas for more than a
decade, saying he didn't want any political "show" made over the
captive's release. (EFE)
