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The triumph of the Gustavo Petro-Francia Márquez formula in last Sunday’s elections in Colombia marked a pause: for the first time at the polls a formula of the left is imposed, an unprecedented event for a country with a strong tradition of right-wing governments and where the most progressive candidates on several occasions did not even go to the polls: they were first assassinated. That is why this unprecedented situation promises to shake many of the country’s traditions.
One of the figures who caused the most stir of the campaign was the vice-president Márquez, lawyer and environmental activist, feminist and defender of human rights, who arrived after a personal story marked by sacrifice: the daughter of a working-class family, she was a single mother at the age 16 years old, she worked in the gold mines and as a domestic worker before finishing her studies.
Marta Lucia Ramirez and Francia Marquez, in their last meeting to prepare the transition between the two (Photo AFP)
This Friday, Márquez attended a meeting with the outgoing Vice President, Marta Lucía Ramírez, in which the contrasts between the two figures became strongly visible. Ramírez, a conservative party figure and former defense minister during Álvaro Uribe’s government, received the future new residents at the vice president’s residence.
One of the most commented moments was the moment when Márquez was introduced to the maid team. The new vice president took the time to greet them and shake hands with each of them, while Ramírez stepped aside, fixing his hair, with a gesture on his face that social networks they described it as “discomfort” or even “contempt”.
“The process of joining the Vice Presidency of the Republic begins. A very eloquent scene that shows the beginning of a new era: the time has come for nobody “tweeted Heidy Sánchez Barreto, a councilor in Bogotá.
The scene went so viral that Ramírez herself had to go out and explain the situation and clear it up I had already greeted “the girls” —As the domestic staff are called— before Márquez arrived.
The new vice president, however, did not join the controversy.
A vice president of humble origins for Colombia
Marquez had had some clashes this week, after the triumph of the Historical Pact last Sunday. One of them was with a reporter, who asked him in terms of whether he was moving into the official residence I was about to start “living tasty”alluding to a campaign slogan linked to his Afro-descendant roots.
“I don’t think that living with taste should live in a house. If they think that since they give me a presidential house I already live with taste, they are wrong. This is part of the classism of this country if you look at it from that place. I invite you to reflect on what it means in the guts of blacks. It is living with dignity, with a guarantee of rights, “said Márquez, in another of his speeches that went viral on the networks.
Márquez was born in the village of Yolombó, a corregimiento in the municipality of Suárez in the department of Cauca, the territory of an Afro-descendant community with enormous deficiencies.
“My community, for example, It has undergone a historical neglect. There is no drinking water, there are no basic sanitation. There is no good connectivity, no good electrical service. The schools have deteriorated, some are six hours from the town hall and there are no roads. It is by walking that people reach these places, “she said in a recent interview with the BBC.
Source: Clarin
