For the first time in the history of Columbia, a black woman, Francia Marquez has been elected as the Vice President of the Nation.
The environmental activist and lawyer, won the just concluded runoff election as the running mate to President-elect, Gustavo Petro, who becomes the country’s first progressives leftist leader.
Reports have it that Marquez, a single mother of two, first became an activist at the age of 13 when the construction of a dam threatened her community. And since then, she has not looked back in her activism.
In a post-victory speech, Marquez said “We’ve taken a very important step, after 214 years we’ve achieved a government of the people … of those with calloused hands, of those on foot, of the nobodies”.
It was reported that racism is rife in Colombia and during the campaign, both celebrities and social media users attacked Marquez over her racial background and lower-class roots.
In a twitter post, the 40-year-old wrote “I come from a region that has been historically abandoned”.
“My task is to guarantee the rights of these excluded and marginalized territories, to guarantee rights for Afro-descendant and Indigenous populations.”
The history maker also vowed to bring equality for women.
She added that “Today, most Colombians still do not have dignified conditions”.
Marquez was born into a poor family in the southwestern department of Cauca — a region ravaged by violence linked to armed groups battling over drug trafficking and illegal mining resources.
It’s important to note that in the left-wing primaries earlier this year, Marquez finished second behind Petro, who duly named her his running mate.
Marquez made headlines on the campaign trail with her feminist, environmentalist and leftist speeches and for her “tasty living” proposal, an idea that is popular amongst the black community struggling for peace and a life in harmony with nature.
She had in her post-election victory, added that “We women are going to eradicate the patriarchy in our country, let’s be for the rights of the diverse LGBTIQ+ community, let’s be for the rights of our Mother Earth”.
She also vowed to work for reconciliation with the armed groups responsible for a spike in violence this year, reversing a decline that followed the 2016 peace deal between the state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Marquez said, “Let’s reconcile this nation, let’s make peace decisively, without fear, with love and happiness. Let’s be for dignity, for social justice”.
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