The Vice President and Minister of Equality of Colombia, Francia Márquez, assured in an interview with the EFE agency that she is not thinking about a possible presidential candidacy of hers in 2026 when the successor of President Gustavo Petro will be chosen.
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“Not now, I think the people elected me to fulfill my mandate,” stated Márquez in Cali, where he is participating in the United Nations Conference on Biodiversity (COP16), which will conclude on November 1. According to Colombian electoral law, those who aspire to a position in the next elections have until the beginning of next year to resign from their positions and undertake the presidential race..
In different parties there are already some pre-candidacy announcements, but President Petro, who cannot seek a second term because presidential re-election was eliminated from the Constitution in 2015, has not mentioned who his possible candidate could be in 2026.
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“I wish good luck to those who are going to run for the Presidency or elected positions; We just hope that they are and that the best are chosen.” so that they continue with the policy promoted by the current Government, focused “in the care of life, in peace, in social justice” so that this legacy “may be lasting”.
Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez.
Ernesto Guzmán/ EFE
Second half of the term
Márquez and Petro’s cabinet are now facing the second half of their mandate, a countdown in which there are still left “enormous challenges”.
“There have been many years of structural violence that has not been transformed overnight, but we are making our efforts to sow seeds of change and transformation of the territories, but also of the lives, of the people,” explains the vice president, who adds that they are trying to get the State where it never went.
This for “close inequality gaps, close abandonment in terms of social investment and be able to contribute to transformation”, and that is the legacy he wants to leave.
“A country aware of the need to work in an articulated manner to close the gaps of inequities and inequalities, because that is largely the origin of the armed conflict, of the barbarity, of the war that exists in our country”he indicates.
One of the biggest challenges will be peace: “When we can eradicate violence and armed conflict from our territory, I know that the doors of opportunity will open”.
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At COP16, Márquez recalls the impacts of the conflict on biodiversity, which in his opinion are “disproportionate” and that have led institutions such as the Special Jurisdiction for Peace (JEP) to consider the Cauca River and its communities as victim and subject. of rights.
That is why the motto of COP16, “Peace with nature”, continues the vice president, to defend that it is necessary to move from the illegal economy “imposed on the territories” towards a sustainable economy” that “is capable of nesting life.”
“The important thing is not to repeat these acts of violence, to make the necessary efforts so that the State is not a State complicit in the violence that the communities have had to experience, and that it assumes responsibility for the change in the transformation”he points out.
Ministry of Equality
For Marquez, “There are populations that experience greater vulnerabilities than others; women, young people, the ethnic population, street dwellers, experience disproportionate impacts” and suffer “exclusion and marginality”, and that is why the Government created the Ministry of Equality, a milestone in the country led by the vice president herself.
However, The creation of this portfolio was overturned by the Constitutional Court and is waiting to restart the legislative process so that it can be fully established..
In this sense, Márquez asks Congress to “understand the need to have an institution that safeguards the rights of the most vulnerable” and reminds them: “With equality and equity Colombia wins and we all win.”
Márquez knows that there is still a lot to do, but he is hopeful that he is on the right path: “No one told us this was easy, but it is not impossible either, so we are going to continue doing it.”
EFE
