Francia Márquez

Francia Elena Márquez Mina (born 1 December 1981) is a Colombian human-rights and environmental activist and lawyer, who is the 13th and current Vice President of Colombia.

She was born in Yolombó, a village in the Suarez municipality in Cauca Department.

She first became an activist at 13, when construction of a dam threatened her community.

After taking office, she became the first Afro-Colombian vice president in the country's history.

She is also the second woman to hold the post, after Marta Lucía Ramírez.

Francia Elena Márquez Mina was born on 1 December 1981, in the town of Yolombó, belonging to the municipality of Suárez, Cauca.

She is the daughter of a miner father and farmer mother.

Márquez described her childhood as "marked by spending time at my maternal grandparents' house, another time with my mother, and the rest with my paternal grandparents."

Márquez is an agricultural technician and graduated from the National Learning Service.

From 1994 to 1997, Márquez participated in the fight against mining exploitation and the protection of the Ovejas River, which was a large and important source of water for her community.

Companies such as Unión Fenosa planned to divert the river towards the Salvajina hydroelectric dam.

Her community managed to prevent the project.

Other companies, such as AngloGold Ashanti, which sought to extract gold in the region, threatening the cleanup of the river, began to invest in the community by building roads and donating school supplies.

Márquez recalls that while some appreciated the company's generosity, others were distrustful, stating that.

"'others among us thought that 'nothing comes for free, they must have an ulterior motive.' And there was already talk of a mining project, so we listened to our elders and said 'no' to AngloGold. The company responded by delivering leaflets to residents' homes, threatening eviction."

During the presidencies of Álvaro Uribe and Juan Manuel Santos, there was an increase in the invitation of international mining companies to extract natural resources in Colombia.

In 2009, Márquez helped lead protests against attempts by the government to evict Afro-Colombians, especially artisanal miners, from ancestral land near the town of La Toma.

The ministry of the Interior had granted companies such as AngloGold the right to mine for gold in the area without consulting residents.

Márquez, along with members of the community council of La Toma, filed a lawsuit challenging the decision.

During this time, several members of the committee received death threats.

Paramilitary groups subsequently targeted the community, killing several artisanal miners on the river banks.

Márquez prevailed when the constitutional court ruled in her community's favour.

In 2013, Márquez became a legal representative in La Toma.

She also took part in the permanent assembly in Cauca, which advocated for the National Land Agency to protect territory.

The following year, Márquez's community faced environmental damage from illegal miners drilling boreholes near the Ovejas river, poisoned due to mercury use.

Márquez again sought legal action and worked with other community members to combat environmental damage caused by illegal miners.

However, in October 2014, Márquez was forced to flee to Cali with her children after receiving threats from paramilitary groups.

Facing increased threats from illegal mining, Márquez organised a 350-kilometre long march from Cauca to Bogotá in 2014.

The March, which consisted of 80 Afro-Colombian women, saw an increase in attention to illegal mining in Cauca, as well as the social and environmental destruction the community and suffering the illegal mining had caused.

The party arrived in Bogotá ten days later and began to protest, demanding an end to the illegal mining.

After protesting for 22 days, Márquez, along with other representatives of La Toma, reached an agreement with the Colombian government.

Government officials decided to take action against illegal mining and established a task force in 2015 to deal with the issue, a first in Colombian history.

The Colombian security forces then began to remove and disassemble illegal mining machinery, and by the conclusion of 2016, all illegal mining apparatuses were no longer present in La Toma.

In 2018, she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to stop illegal gold mining in her community of La Toma and for her community organising.

Márquez led a protest march of 80 women who trekked 560 kilometres (350 miles) to the capital city of Bogotá, and demanded the removal of all illegal miners from their community.

In 2019, the BBC listed Francia Márquez on their 100 Women list for that year.

In August 2020, Márquez announced her candidacy in the 2022 Colombian presidential election and sought the nomination for the Historic Pact for Colombia coalition.

She was later chosen by the coalition's nominee, Gustavo Petro, to be his running mate.

In 2023 she was also appointed as Ministry of Equality and Equity of Colombia.

Later in 2020 she would obtain a law degree from the Santiago de Cali University.