Petro will seek the presidency of Colombia with Francia Márquez

Gustavo Petro will seek the presidency of Colombia hand in hand with Francia Márquez, the environmental activist who surprised everyone the night of the primaries with a great result, sources close to the coalition have confirmed.

She is a feminist lawyer, almost unknown until a few months ago, she represents the forgotten classes, the Afro part of the nation, that of the rural areas where the violence of the armed conflict has suffered the most.

Márquez is also an authoritative voice among the youth and the social movements that paralyzed the country last year.

Petro, therefore, has clearly chosen to connect in the first round of the elections with the people who expressed their discontent in the streets and demanded change.

The police brutality with which the mobilizations were stopped left almost fifty dead and questioned the Government of Iván Duque.

At that critical moment, Márquez was on the side of the teenagers who called themselves frontline, boys protected with bicycle helmets, tin shields and makeshift barricades to prevent agents from accessing certain neighborhoods.

Those spring days politicians were not well received in these places.

Márquez, on the other hand, was one more.

In fact, she entered there without her escorts, who were waiting for her outside.

Since she confronted the miners in her region, she has been threatened with death.

His choice is the most progressive of those at hand.

The members of the left-wing coalition had promised that the second in the primaries would be the presidential formula, but doubts still remained.

Petro was ambiguous about his decision.

Marquez herself said publicly that she would not be a hindrance and she would not stand up to him if she did not choose her.

It was a sign that she was giving him freedom of choice.

He had other options that would have opened the door to another barn of votes, such as an alliance with César Gaviria, the president of the Liberal Party, which is famous for attracting several million followers.

In turn, if Petro had not counted on Márquez, she would have disappointed part of her electorate.

Be that as it may, the choice is already made.

Márquez has earned it hard.

On the night of the primaries of the left, the center and the right, she was the third most voted candidate (783,000 votes), only behind Petro and Federico Gutiérrez, winner in the primaries of the right.

The environmentalist surprisingly outperformed Sergio Fajardo, the center's leader, someone with greater public exposure.

Fajardo was quick and a few days after the last vote she proposed to Márquez to be her presidential ticket, according to her.

He was a tempting option, but she was loyal to the coalition and waited for Petro to decide.

Fajardo then chose someone with a similar profile, Luis Gilberto Murillo, an Afro-Colombian academic also concerned about biodiversity.

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