Francia Márquez bets on being more than a symbol

The Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez, during the inauguration ceremony in Suárez, Cauca, on August 13, 2022. MARIANA GREIF (REUTERS)

Francia Márquez has said that it will not be an "adornment" in the Government of Gustavo Petro.

She said it since she was chosen as his vice-presidential formula, she repeated it in the campaign and has reiterated it now that both have been sworn in as president and vice president.

"This Vice Presidency is not going to be for decoration, I am not a woman for decoration, I am a woman of struggle, dignity and justice," said Márquez last March, after having obtained the second vote in the consultation of the left , in which she sought to be the presidential candidate.

"The vice president for us is not only a symbol of a woman who stands there," she warned when Petro kept the candidacy, with 80% of the votes, and looked for her to be number two for him.

Now, when both are already in office, Márquez has once again said that his functions will depend on what Petro defines and has asked him to give urgency to the bill that seeks to create the Ministry of Equality, which he announced will be presented this week, and in which it is expected to have a role beyond the symbolic, as a minister.

But even if it is an urgent issue in Congress, a new ministry would not be possible before the end of this year.

“It is the President of the Republic who must define within the Government what my functions will be.

We in the campaign made an agreement and the agreement was to create the Ministry of Equality (...) we hope that with an urgent procedure we can soon take on the biggest challenge that Colombia has and that is the challenge of equality”, Suárez reiterated, Cauca,

Márquez (40 years old) is not going to be limited to the Vice Presidency, a position that, according to the Constitution, is only relevant to replace the president in case of temporary or absolute absence, and that has no functions or an institutional mandate.

“It is difficult as women to reach this space of political representation.

But if we are black, indigenous, peasant, impoverished women, the fight is much more difficult, ”said Márquez, in front of her people.

Her presence in power is one of the greatest signs of change that the new government represents.

Woman, black, activist for the environment, victim of the conflict and domestic worker, the new vice president of Colombia seeks to contribute with symbolism, but also with decisions to the direction of this country.

Her predecessor, Marta Lucía Ramírez, was vice president, but also chancellor.

The Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez, is received in Suárez, Cauca, on August 15, 2022.JOAQUIN SARMIENTO (AFP)

I am Because We Are (SPS), the left-wing political movement of Afro-Colombian origin led by Francia Márquez, which promotes social, economic, gender, racial, environmental justice and the protection of human rights -that is, the foundations of the political proposal which was key to taking Petro to the Presidency-, he barely has representation in two positions in the Cabinet: Irene Vélez as Minister of Mines and Energy, and Aurora Vergara, Deputy Minister of Education.

The lawyer and former candidate for the House of Representatives for the SPS movement, Alí ​​Bantú Ashanti, recognizes the achievement that means that for the first time the Afro people, to which he belongs, appears in the photo of a Government, with Márquez as vice president, but says that is not enough.

“Although it is true that there has been progress in some scenarios, we observe that there is a lack of representativeness in the Government, people who really represent the interests of the Afro people.

Apart from France, only Aurora Vergara has Afro roots, the rest respond to other political agendas”, says Bantú Ashanti, who recalls that 90% of the black people voted for Petro.

"We hope that those votes are also reflected in the spaces in which we have never been and that have always been occupied by the same people," he says to the Afro-American lawyer.

Petro has said that he wants Francia Márquez to be administratively responsible for public policies that lead to equality.

At the summit of mayors of the Pacific coast, she affirmed it before an auditorium full of people of African descent.

"The vice president is responsible for public policies that lead to equality and that make the Pacific coast receive, in the four years to come, the priority of investments in social public policies," said the president, who announced which will assign said functions through a decree.

Francia Márquez, who has become a figure in the region, as seen in her recent visit to Brazil, Chile and Argentina, still does not have a ministry nor has a decree been issued allowing her to be responsible for equality policy, but in her first week as vice president she has taken advantage of every space to reiterate the speech that led her to become a political phenomenon.

At the closing of the Petronio Álvarez festival, which celebrates black culture and music from the Pacific, Francia Márquez was the protagonist.

On stage she spoke and sang about the desire of the people who listened to her, hers.

“We are sad because the war, the hunger and the cold are killing us, it is finishing us.

What does Colombia want?

Colombia wants peace,” she intoned Francia Márquez, accompanied by the sound of the marimba.

“Here is your vice president,

the first black woman,” she said before an audience that raised white handkerchiefs and hoped to see the woman they voted for exercising her power in government.

"Yes, it could!" They shouted before the imposing presence of Márquez on stage.

This is how @FranciaMarquezM, Colombia's first African vice president, sings to peace, in our #PetronioCorazónPacífico 🎶🎶🎶 @JorgeIvanOspina @Rmayorga @AnaCopete10 pic.twitter.com/ipfgblQvPI

– Petronio Álvarez (@PetronioCO) August 15, 2022

Subscribe here