The Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez, was sworn in symbolically this Saturday in her homeland, in the department of Cauca, from where she announced that this week The creation of the Ministry of Equality, which she herself will lead, will be filed in Congress.
(Francia Márquez, first Afro ‘vice’ and first Minister of Equality).
As one of the main campaign promises, and that once in the Government the Colombian president, Gustavo Petro, and Márquez have insisted that they create, the formation of this new portfolio was agreed to “take on the biggest challenge that Colombia has: inequality”in the words of the vice president.
“The vice president has no institutional mandate,” but its function is “replace the president in any circumstance that he cannot be present”Marquez explained.
“I do not expect to replace the president”, continued, to insist that “It is the president who must define within the government what my functions will be.”
In this sense, “The agreement was to create a Ministry of Equality, and that project is going to be filed in Congress this week” and they hope it will be approved urgently.
(This is the first state policy for gender equity).
“I am going to work for the equality of women in Colombia”, the vice president insisted.
In an act of thanksgiving, with flowers, fruits, coffee beans, cocoa and cornMárquez received “the blessing of Mother Earth” to wisely lead the challenges of the coming years.
In the municipality of Suárez (Cauca), the vice president participated in this symbolic act in which indigenous, Afro-descendant and peasant communities took part, welcoming them “to the Government of change, human dignity and social justice”.
“Today I am the first Afro-descendant woman vice president of Colombia and the second Afro-descendant woman vice president in Latin America (…), a daughter of this people”, celebrated Márquez, who promised to work for greater and better access to water in the Pacific region, something that will help combat malnutrition.
(Reform to the Presidency: the positions that disappear or are merged).
He also highlighted some of the priorities that the Government will have in the next four years, among which peace stands out, but also education, health, tourism and the Colombian countryside.
“The first government of the people is not going to have it easy, but we hope to count on all of you to move Colombia forward, to move Cauca forward, to move the Colombian Pacific forward,” Márquez concluded after receiving the ancestral and symbolic blessing of his people.
EFE
