Senator Piedad Córdoba has become the biggest headache for candidate Gustavo Petro.
The leader of the left insisted on presenting it to the Senate as part of her list despite the warnings of many of his collaborators.
Córdoba drags several judicial processes that could harm her campaign.
A month ago, Petro asked her to stop publicly supporting him in the face of the imminent process that was going to be opened for her relationship with Álex Saab, the alleged figurehead of Nicolás Maduro detained in the United States.
That seemed to be the end of the matter.
However, the figure of Córdoba, one of the best-known politicians in the country, always returns to the scene.
The senator has been detained this Wednesday in Honduras, five days before the first round of the presidential elections, for carrying on her without declaring 62,700 dollars,
Córdoba visited the Honduran presidential palace the day before because of her good relationship with Xiomara Castro, the current president, and her husband, former president Manuel Zelaya.
This Tuesday he was going to take a flight to Bogotá – with a stopover in Panama City – at the Comayagua airport, which serves the city of Tegucigalpa, when the police discovered that he was transporting an amount greater than the 10,000 dollars allowed per traveler.
In these cases, the authorities fine offenders with a third of the amount found.
The investigation, in any case and according to Colombian sources, has been placed in the hands of the Honduran prosecutor's office.
The money seized from Colombian senator Piedad Córdoba at the Tegucigalpa airport, in an image provided by the authorities of that country.
The figure of Córdoba arouses political passions in Colombia, and had already become the focus of controversy in February, when the debate around his role in the release of politicians who spent long years in the jungle was revived.
During the government of Álvaro Uribe (2002-2010), she was a kind of mediator with the extinct FARC guerrilla in kidnapping cases.
A former communications adviser now accuses her before the Prosecutor's Office, many years later, of having taken advantage of her closeness to the Government of the late Hugo Chávez in Venezuela to advise the rebels and manipulate the release times of the hostages for political reasons, in particular that of Ingrid Betancourt.
The former adviser, Andrés Vásquez, also assures that Teodora's alias, which appears in several intercepted communications to the FARC, refers to Córdoba, an old accusation that she has always denied.
Córdoba's lawyers assure that there is not a single proof that she has acted illegally, that she has been a helper or militant of the FARC, or that they have financed her.
Córdoba, who should take office as a senator on July 20, had been in Congress for 16 years before, at that time as a member of the Liberal Party.
In 2010, the Attorney General's Office disqualified her due to her alleged links with the FARC, but six years later the Council of State revoked that decision.
In more recent times she has been pointed out as a sort of
godmother
in Venezuela for Alex Saab.
The head of debate for the candidate of the Historical Pact, Alfonso Prada, said that he could not confirm the news, but sent a preventive message.
"Piedad Córdoba, as Gustavo Petro said a few weeks ago, was separated by him from the campaign, she is not part of it," she recalled.
"Any episode surrounding this case must respond to the authorities, to justice, and we hope it will be prompt and effective."
This Monday, in a presidential debate, Fico Gutiérrez, the candidate of the right-wing coalition, asked Petro if he would proceed to extradite Piedad Córdoba – "senator you had elected" – in case there was sufficient evidence and a request for United States, to which the candidate responded with a terse
yes
that seemed to settle that discussion.
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