''My stomach hurts,'' she told an aide. ``It's all this stress.''
No wonder. Ten bodyguards now accompany her around Colombia after a series of death threats. People on the street insult her, and she must wait in a secure place for other passengers to board an airplane before she gets on, after a verbal altercation at Bogotá's airport in January.
A kidnap victim herself who has long worked on behalf of Colombia's dispossessed, Córdoba has been in the headlines over the past three months for her work to secure the freedom of six hostages held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a Marxist guerrilla group known as the FARC.
''She's Chávez's alter ego,'' said Sen. Jorge Visbál, a political foe.
Córdoba soldiers on.''They've always tried to shut me up,'' Córdoba told The Miami Herald during several interviews that started in Bogotá and ended in Caracas. ``I'm against the Establishment. Many people on the left don't want to rock the Establishment and not be invited to cocktail parties. Nobody invites me. The only list I'm on is of those to be killed.''
Córdoba said she has already survived eight attempts on her life. One killed two of her police guards while another maimed her driver.
And that was before she sought the controversial and high-profile role of trying to free hostages held for years by the FARC, while Colombian President Alvaro Uribe waged an unrelenting war against the FARC, backed with U.S. aid.
Córdoba joined with Chávez, and they won Uribe's reluctant support to try to get the FARC to free hostages. The guerrillas unilaterally released two in January and four more in February.
''Without her efforts and the mediation of Chávez, we wouldn't be free today,'' former Sen. Luis Eladio Pérez, freed in February, told The Miami Herald. ``When Colombia had forgotten the Colombians in the jungle, she was fighting on our behalf. Whether or not you like her ideas, she is someone the country needs. She's not doing this to win votes.''
Results from a Gallup poll earlier this month showed Córdoba had a disapproval rating of 69 percent in the country's four biggest cities, up from only 32 percent late last year.
''Chávez is a humanitarian,'' Córdoba said. ``I'm a Chávista.''
As for Uribe, ''he is a war-monger,'' Córdoba added. ``Colombia is a Mafia state, and Uribe is the boss.''
Ironically, Uribe and Córdoba both hail from Medellín in the central Colombia state of Antioquia. But the similarities end there.
Córdoba is an avowed socialist whose father was black and her mother white. Both of her parents were teachers. She was the second of 10 children.
Córdoba, 53, said she was one of only three blacks among the 300 students at her law school. She was a student activist then and worked afterward with political activists on behalf of blacks, women, gays and the poor in general.
She raised four children, got divorced and was elected to the House of Representatives in 1992 and the Senate two years later. Senators are elected nationwide.
In 1999, right-wing paramilitaries kidnapped her, but public appeals secured her freedom 16 days later. She took a leave from the Senate and fled to Montreal where she went to work for the United Nations. She returned to Colombia two years later and was reelected to the 102-member Senate.
Córdoba moved easily among the powerful in a Senate ante-chamber recently. Sitting at a corner table, she accepted hugs and kisses from colleagues. ''She is a brave woman,'' Sen. Luis Fernando Velasco said, after greeting Córdoba. ``She says what she thinks, even though this might hurt her politically. People have started to view her as an enemy of the state. That isn't fair.''
In a room full of gray suits and light-skinned men, Córdoba stood out with her dark hue and all-pink outfit -- pant suit, high heel shoes and her trademark turban that she said honors her African heritage. Given her high-profile status, it wasn't surprising that a caricaturist in the ante-chamber chose her as a subject. Córdoba smiled through gritted teeth when given the drawing. It showed Chávez putting his arm around her.
''They say Chávez is my lover,'' Córdoba said the following evening, shaking her head. ``They also say I'm a lesbian. I haven't gone out with anyone in years. Who wants to go out with me given all the negative attention I attract?''
Córdoba said the public ire has taken its toll.
''This work is very exhausting,'' she said on the terrace of the Gran Meliá Hotel in Caracas where the Chávez government puts her up. ``The [Colombian] government has sold the media on the idea that I'm very dangerous. It hurts me.''
A FARC e-mail recovered by the government from a slain guerrilla's laptop called her a ''friend'' and said her candidacy would have ''our support,'' even as it said she would remain a faithful member of the opposition Liberal Party.
Córdoba denied having plans to run for president. Instead, she said she will keep working to get the FARC and the Uribe administration to agree to swap 40 high-profile kidnap victims for 500 or so jailed guerrillas.
Eventually, Córdoba said, she hopes to help secure a FARC cease-fire in exchange for the guerrillas being incorporated into civil society.
''I could teach or work with the United Nations,'' she said in Caracas. ``But I'm committed to the peace process. It's more important to try to move forward than to do nothing or to retire. I can't remain quiet given what is happening in Colombia.''
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