Whatever the outcome of next Sunday’s presidential election, the reality is that for the first time in Colombian history, it will have a black vice president who could be lawyer and environmentalist Francia Elena Márquez Mina or engineer Marelen Castillo Torres. women with very different programs.

Márquez, 40, was second-in-command to Gustavo Petro, the presidential candidate of the left-wing Pacto Histórico coalition, while Castillo, 53, was elected by Rodolfo Hernández of the Anti-Corruption League Governors movement.

Both are technically in a presidential race tied to polls. And one of them will replace Marta Lucía Ramírez, whose current vice president of Colombia has a woman and the first person in history to hold the office.

Two candidates were born in the Pacific region: Márquez in the city of Suárez in the Cauca department, and Castillo in Cali, capital of Valle del Cauca, two regions damaged by armed conflict in the country.

“Symbolically, the arrival of one of these means an important presence of recognition of the Afro-Colombian people, but with different agendas,” Cindy Caro, a professor at the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá, told Efe.

Marelen Castillo, who made a name for herself in politics after she was selected as the nominee by the former mayor of Bucaramanga, Rodolfo Hernández, is unknown to the vast majority of Colombians as her entire professional career has focused on university. world..

Francia Márquez, on the other hand, has had a wider public profile as she has long been in the spotlight for her notable environmental activism, especially since she received the National Human Rights Award in 2015 and then the Environment Award in 2018. , recognized as the “Nobel for the Environment”.

“Just because one of them is Colombian vice president doesn’t mean they represent the same agendas, because Francia is more socially minded and Marelen is more academic,” said Cindy Caro.

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Hernández’s running mate entered politics without any field experience. She has been married for 28 years and comes from a family of five sisters as the daughter of a tailor and a civil servant.

He has a degree in Biology and Chemistry from the Universidad Santiago de Cali and an industrial engineer from the Universidad Autónoma de Occidente in Cali. He also holds a Master of Business Administration from Monterrey University of Technology (Mexico) and a Doctorate of Education from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale (Florida, USA).

In contrast, Francia Márquez, the daughter of a midwife and mother of two daughters, rose to prominence for environmental leadership in her region at the age of 15 and later emigrated to the political arena.

In her speech, she emphasizes historically marginalized communities and regions with a feminist vision of politics advocating dignity, justice and human rights.

Márquez publicly debated racism, classism and machismo in Colombian politics; it also advocates for the redistribution of wealth based on a vision of equality for the population.

Along these lines, she recalls Márquez’s commendation from Angela Davis, an American feminist and minority rights activist who won numerous awards and was also arrested.

“Petro should put more emphasis on Francia. Rodolfo Hernández, not so much from Marelen, because there is more international pressure for Francia to play than for Marelen to play,” said the professor at Rosario University.