From Cali
“I grew up on a mountain in the middle of nowhere, in the oblivion of the state and the presence of armed violence,” says Francia Márquez to PáginaI12what next Sunday she could be elected vice president of Colombia. The candidate takes a few minutes in a non-stop agenda in Cali and the entire region of south-western Colombia, where she is from, for the talk. She wears a bright, cheerful dress, she talks to the media, she meets with women, businessmen, young people, people who come to her on the street to hug her and take pictures.
The phenomenon France
The Francia Márquez phenomenon was made clear in the electoral result of the month of March: “I participated in the inter-party consultation of the Historical Pact and at the level of the Pact I got the second vote, at the level of Colombia I got the third, because of the enzymes of clans and political companies that there is in politics, and that shows that I represent ordinary people, people who have never had rights in this country, who have felt that politics has never been for them,” he says.
That result led her to be Gustavo Petro’s presidential formula in the Historical Pact, which will compete in the ballot against Rodolfo Hernández and his vice candidate Marelen Castillo on June 19. Those months of campaigning took her to tour the country on which she, she says, she saw “On the one hand, as uncertainty, distrust, fears, apprehensions, hatred that are also expressed, but on the other hand, a lot of joy, a lot of hope that people are sowing. I see the real chances of a win.”. There is great expectation on her face for Sunday, as well as concerns about what is at stake and who they face.
a long story
“I am part of a struggle, of a people, that did not begin now with my candidacy for the vice presidency, but rather have been struggles that were started by those who preceded me on this path, my grandparents and grandmothers. I am a woman who descends from peoples of men and women who were enslaved, and those men and women have fought all their lives to give birth to freedom”says France.
“I started my leadership very young, very young so to speak, at 13 years old I was already accompanying my family and my community to defend their river, defend their territory, and that is where I became, I was trained. There they taught me the character that I have, they taught me courage, they taught me dignity and that is what I am”. His character, she says, is “strong”, something that she conveys in her eyes and words.
“That for a patriarchal and macho society like the one we have, that a woman says that she has a strong character is shown as negative, she is shown as the rabid woman, the woman who shouts, who makes noise, who does not tolerate, and well yes no I tolerate injustice, mistreatment, machismo, racism, so I am strong and it is the only way to be able to break down the barriers in our country”says who won the international environmental prize Goldman in 2018.
The idea of being president began before the outbreak of 2021. “At first they told me, well, you went crazy, others told me that I was an equal in derogatory terms, that I was an infiltrator in politics, I didn’t care, I kept going.” Her presidential aspiration later coincided with the massive three-month mobilizations that had their epicenter in Cali. However, “in specific terms of the elections -on May 29- the youth that took to the streets, which is the majority, are not those who went out to vote en masse”, Explain. How to bring this youth closer to the polls is one of the questions of the campaign.
what is played
“Peace is at stake, dignity is at stake, it is at stake for the lower and middle social class to have guaranteed rights, the social state of law, institutionality, democracy is at stake. Of course, all of this implies that life is at stake and that is what we are playing for, the lives of Colombian men and women”, he says in the face of an election where most of the polls show a technical tie that could be defined by a few hundred thousand votes.
“The other candidate is supported by Uribismo and Uribismo voted no to peace, and this uribista government shattered the peacethen everyone is there, therefore they are going to continue destroying the possibilities of peace, because what they do is war and then sell us fear and sell us democratic security”, a term, the latter, which refers to politics under Alvaro Uribe between 2002 and 2010, marked by emblematic cases such as those known as “false positives” of which more than six thousand people were victims.
The proposal of the Historical Pact is to dismantle this mechanism of violence and systematic inequality. “Starting the situation we are experiencing goes through the economic budget. The first step is a participatory government plan for the people, second is the definition of economic resources, I can speak a lot about peace, but if we do not allocate economic resources to advance everything that is the process, we are telling liesIf the budget for the war is going to have higher levels than the budget for health, education, housing, work, then we are deceiving the people”.
Alerts for Sunday
“This would be the first progressive government, which, of course, is not going to change five hundred years of backwardness, neglect, violence, exclusion, we will lay the foundations for that path of change,” he explains. in front is a political, economic elite that was largely aligned behind Hernández to confront Petro and defend his status quo, a situation that raises alerts for Sunday.
“I have a concern electoral fraud, we have not fully reviewed the Registry’s software”, says Francia Márquez. Petro, in a recent interview, stated that they registered “very suspicious movements” in the Registrar’s Office, whose leadership “has a clear affinity with the other candidate.” “The elite here do not know, that they do not accept the elections if they lose and that ends in violence. They are fears that we have, we hope that none of that happens, that the process is peaceful, calm, with joy and not with situations that we have to regret, “explains the candidate.
“We need all of Colombia to go out and vote” is one of the messages that has been repeated in these last days of incessant rhythm of activities in the Colombian south-west, one of the areas hardest hit by drug trafficking and its consequent violence, where the Historical Pact won in the first round. A victory on Sunday would in turn mean that of the first Afro-Colombian woman in the vice presidency, something that, like a first progressive government, would be historic in Colombia.