Week: The children of Piedad Córdoba break their silence

Week: It’s been a week, how has it been to face the days without your mother?

per week

Natalia Castro: Very hard, a void that… (silence and crying) is not filled with anything. I look for him, I try to find him everywhere, but he’s not there, it’s so hard. I have no words.

Week: Are politicians still calling?

NC: Yes, lots of solidarity. Congressmen Alejandro Toro, Gloria Florez, Aida Avella, Gloria Ramirez, Isabel Zuleta, among others, are very attentive.

Week: Any international politician?

NC: The day my mother died – Saturday, January 20 – Nicolas Maduro, the Venezuelan president, called me. He showed solidarity, he told me that he loved her very much, he missed her and that he did not believe in her death. This seemed unbelievable to him. In Venezuela they have paid tribute to him. The call was at 9:00 pm.

Week: What else did he say to you?

NC: The conversation was very warm as it is, I felt very sad, very bad when she called, she told me that Piedad was very nice and that she was a very good friend of hers.

Week: Did Piedad Córdoba talk about his death before he died?

NC: Never. My mother always had a great desire to live, to pursue her projects, her family, to survive, and to fight for her projects in the Senate. She was excited because she had been appointed Rapporteur for Health Reform in the Seventh Committee of the Senate.

Week: What did you talk about in the last few hours?

NC: She was in Medellin and planned to travel to Bogota, I asked her if she was going because I wanted to go with her, but she planned to return soon, i.e. she was traveling on Sunday And was returning on Monday. Besides, it was her birthday this 25th January and I asked her: ‘What do you want me to do for you?’ I am about to surprise you. ‘Who do you want to invite?’ But since she was planning a surprise, the party she wanted to plan was already in her mind. She used to organize parties, she always made them big. Apart from the employees, I was the only one who prepared lunch. And that Friday, when he told me about Bogotá, he told me: ‘I’m leaving, thank you very much for the care, for the food, I ate very well these days. thank you so much’.

Week: I mean, have you planned your birthday party?

NC: She was going to celebrate her birthday, my mother was a woman who said goodbye to the year with a big party on 30th December. He invited all his friends. They had a big lunch on Mother’s Day. She wanted to convince them.

Week: And what happened on the Saturday morning before his death?

NC: That morning – Saturday, December 20 – I woke up late. He told me that he, with his characteristic cheerfulness, jokingly called one of his escorts. He left a message on her cell phone. “My dear Manuel, please come up and help me make breakfast.” Sure enough, he went over and made some scrambled eggs for her. He appreciated it a lot.

Later, he went to buy her some donuts because she asked him for a favor. My mother asked if the staff had arrived and she replied ‘no’ as it was 7:00 in the morning. She went to her room.

When I woke up I saw that my mom was sleeping, after a while she woke up, she told me she was going to look for a recipe and asked what we were having for lunch. I told her that we should use the leftover rice from the previous day, which was very tasty, bravas potatoes, roasted meat and salad, but since she liked everything to taste good, she said to me: ‘How about you Don’t make meat so you are going to make it? Is it cooked well?’

I started talking to the service girl, I told her we should make some garlic shrimp. And I went back to my mom and showed her another recipe. My brother Camilo went to his room, he talked to her, we laughed, I went out, he went out too, and I went to make lunch. She turned out very nice. After some time, when I went upstairs again and went to the bathroom, mother became distraught. The scene was so intense, everything happened in a matter of seconds, I don’t know what happened.

To read the full interview, Here