Longtime activist has confronted challenges, achieved gorgeous successes in world’s most harmful nation for environmental defenders.
In 2019, Francia Marquez survived an assassination try by males wielding firearms and grenades – an assault that got here on the heels of a string of demise threats in opposition to the award-winning Colombian environmentalist.
Now, three years later, Marquez may turn into the primary Afro-Colombian vice chairman – a historic improvement in a rustic the place politics has historically been the area of rich white males. She was tapped for the place by leftist presidential candidate Gustavo Petro, extensively seen because the frontrunner within the upcoming Might election.
“This is a vital second for the ‘nobodies’ of this nation who've by no means had a voice,” Marquez advised a information convention after her nomination final week. “It is a second of racial justice, of gender justice, ecological justice – and a second of social justice.”
As supporters pointed to the momentum of the “new left” motion in Colombia, Marquez acquired greater than 700,000 votes in a presidential main earlier this month. Supporters hope her appointment will imply higher illustration on the nationwide degree for areas lengthy uncared for by insurance policies crafted in Bogota.
She is going to run for vice chairman alongside Petro, a senator and former mayor of Bogota who as soon as took up arms in opposition to the Colombian state as a member of the insurgent group M-19. Petro has maintained a double-digit lead in latest polls over his closest presidential rival, right-wing politician Federico Gutierrez.
Marquez has targeted her marketing campaign on the necessity for financial funding in battle zones, environmentalism, and making certain implementation of Colombia’s 2016 peace accord. She has vocally opposed the drug wars in Colombia, generally known as the world’s most harmful nation for environmental defenders.
“We live a historic second,” Cha Dorina Hernandez, the primary Black congresswoman from San Basilio de Palenque, a historic district generally known as the primary free city within the Americas, advised Al Jazeera. Black communities “have traditionally been excluded from decision-making and financial alternative in Colombia”, she added.
“We've got by no means had actual energy over our lives, over our future. She is now ready to make what we've been preventing for a actuality.”
‘Cemeteries and mass graves’
A lawyer and mom of two, Marquez was born in Yolombo, Cauca, a conflict-hit area in southwestern Colombia.
A longtime activist, she earned a Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018 for her mobilisation efforts in opposition to unlawful gold mining. As a part of that marketing campaign, Marquez led dozens of girls in a 10-day, 563km (350 mile) march from La Toma, Cauca, to Bogota, demanding an finish to the mining operations.
In an open letter final 12 months to Kamala Harris, congratulating her on turning into the primary African American vice chairman, Marquez expressed hope that the USA would pay extra consideration to Colombia’s strife: “Afro-Colombian and Indigenous persons are bored with being within the midst of violent confrontations, and of seeing our rivers and lands turn into cemeteries and mass graves.”
Cauca, a focus of Marquez’s activism, has been struggling in recent times in opposition to armed teams and rampant lawlessness.
Social activists typically find yourself within the crosshairs: Throughout Colombia, 138 human rights defenders had been killed in 2021, accounting for greater than a 3rd of the worldwide complete.
By her personal work, Marquez has spearheaded sustainable farming programmes, advocated for Indigenous communities in territorial struggles in opposition to worldwide companies, and helped to construct alliances amongst Afro-Colombian communities within the Pacific coast area.
“She has all the time been a disciplined consultant of the motion,” Hernandez stated. “She has all the time been on the entrance of our marches, of our activism. She [makes visible] the problems that so many right here wish to ignore.”
Brigitte Baptiste, the previous director of Colombia’s Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Analysis on Organic Assets, advised Al Jazeera that Marquez represents a pointy departure from the established political social gathering system, during which voices like hers are sometimes excluded: “She is a logo of a brand new technology that calls for issues be carried out otherwise.”
Politician Angela Maria Robledo stated Marquez may very well be a decisive issue within the Might election. “Francia isn’t solely an necessary determine in symbolic phrases, she is a politician who brings numerous hope, particularly due to what she represents and what this wrestle means for human rights and environmental protections,” Robledo advised Al Jazeera.
Marquez lately introduced plans to base her marketing campaign in Medellin, the facility base of right-wing political events in Colombia. She hopes this can be a robust image, as her makes an attempt to carry consideration to traditionally marginalised populations are launched from the center of conservative energy.
“That is solely step one in an extended journey,” Marquez stated at her latest information convention. “The second has arrived for Colombians to decide on their path. The time has arrived to put in writing a brand new story for Colombia.”
Daniela Diaz contributed further reporting.
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