Petro calls criticism of Márquez for using a helicopter “racist”

The president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, called this Thursday of racist criticism that his Afro-descendant vice president, Francia Márquez, has received, for traveling by helicopter and living in a high-class residential complex in the southwest of the country.

(In context: Francia Márquez explains why she arrives and leaves by helicopter to her house).

“What really bothers a lot of ill-gotten power people is that they have to live with someone different from them in skin color and that they have well-gotten power.“, the leftist president wrote on his Twitter account.

In a second message, Petro published an old cover of the Spanish magazine ‘Hola’ in which four powerful white women are seen in their luxurious house in the department of Valle del Cauca, where the vice president lives.

The photograph shows two black uniformed women carrying silver trays in the background and next to the pool. “What bothers the descendants of ill-gotten power is that those in the back sit next toor,” added the president.

(Keep reading: Why Petro trusts tourism as a replacement for hydrocarbons).

Márquez, 41, became the country’s first black vice president on August 7 and also the formula for the first leftist government led by Petro. Her rise to power exposed the underlying racism that persists in a country where about 9% of the 50 million inhabitants are Afro-descendants.

In a video on the Instagram network, Márquez explained that his new position involved living in a high-class residential complex, near Cali, and travel by helicopter due to failed attacks against them and security risks.

The opposition senator, María Fernanda Cabal, described as “outrageous tasty life” of the vice president and unleashed a shower of comments for and against. “Your problem is class.

Her problem is that she does not accept that a woman like me, humble, Afro-descendant, is now living in the sector where her family lives”, the politician defended herself. Petro and Márquez advanced their campaign amid strong security measures, in a country weighed down by political assassinations and more than half a century of armed conflict.

(Read on: Petro Proposes ‘Democratizing Power Generation’: What It Means.)

Born into a poor family, the vice president was a single mother at 16fled her land under threat of death, studied law and became a prominent environmentalist, winner of the Goldman Prize, also known as the Nobel Prize for environmentalists.

In 2019 they wanted to assassinate her with grenades and rifle bursts, and in January authorities found explosives near his former home. “I am not going to expose myself further knowing the dark intentions of many people to overthrow President Gustavo Petro or to create chaos,” he insisted.

(See: What will happen to contracts for the provision of services with the State?).

AFP