Radical leftist Vice President of Colombia Francia Márquez accused the government of far-left President Gustavo Petro — to which she belongs — of engaging in “racist” and “patriarchal” practices.
Márquez also complained about her removal from the Ministry of Equality.
Márquez was Petro’s running mate in Colombia’s 2022 presidential elections, which resulted in the election of Petro as the South American nation’s first leftist president in its history. At the time, mainstream media praised Márquez’s election as Colombia’s first “Afro-descendant” vice president. In December 2022, Márquez demanded that “colonizer” United Nations member states pay “racial justice” reparations to Afro-descendants and African people.
The Colombian vice president leveled her “racism” accusations against Petro’s government onk Wednesday in remarks given during her participation at an “Afro-descendant economic justice” forum in the city of Cali to mark National Afro-Colombian Day, which commemorates the abolition of slavery in Colombia in 1851.
La vicepresidenta Francia Márquez reveló que está trabajando 'con las uñas' pidiendo ayuda económica a los alcaldes y a la comunidad internacional porque no tiene presupuesto para sus programas.
— Noticias Caracol (@NoticiasCaracol) May 22, 2025
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“It has not been an easy task to govern in a country that has a racial state, with a government that also practices racism and patriarchy,” Márquez said. “When I arrived, I came with many illusions of change and dreams and hopes, but I have had many obstacles and hurdles.”
The Colombian vice president asserted that she does not agree with some of Petro’s decisions and specifically pointed to her removal as Minister of Equality this year, a position she concurrently held with the vice presidency. Márquez served as the inaugural Minister of Equality since the position’s creation in June 2023 through February, when she was replaced by Carlos Rosero, a close friend of hers.
“We have made progress – you know that I spent a year and a half doing a task and that was to create a new institution in the country, the Ministry of Equality and Equity, which today has a vice-ministry for ethnic peoples and a directorate for Afro-descendant, Raizal and Palenquero communities,” Márquez said.
“I have to say that in a year and a half we created the institution from scratch, 100 years ago a ministry with the characteristics we created was not founded,” she continued. “However, when I created it and it was ready to bring investment to the territories, President Gustavo Petro made the decision to remove me from the position.”
The Colombian vice president accused the government of not providing her office with the required financial resources to properly do her job.
“I have to say it today, in this government I have had to go to the territories and sometimes knock on the doors of the mayors to finance an inter-institutional articulation meeting,” Márquez said. “It has been without economic guarantees, without a specific budget allocated to the Vice Presidency.”
“What I have been able to achieve I have done in coordination with international cooperation that has strongly supported me in order to fulfill the mission and the task,” she continued. “Above all, so that the Colombian people, my country, my people, would not end up saying that my arrival here was useless.”
Márquez’s removal from the Equality Ministry occurred amid a broader ministerial overhaul launched by Petro in February in the aftermath of a wave of ministerial resignations resulting from a disastrous six-hour government meeting broadcast live on national television.
During the meeting – which included moments such as Petro claiming that cocaine “is not worse than whiskey” and musing about Greek eroticism – Márquez and several Colombian ministers aired their grievances about the return to the government of current Foreign Minister Laura Sarabia and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti, two highly controversial members of Petro’s inner circle.
Márquez, in addition to criticizing the controversial pair, said during the meeting that “people tell me that things were better before I came to this government.”
According to the Colombian magazine Semana, Márquez has “almost disappeared” publicly since the February broadcast. Gustavo Bolívar, a former Colombian senator who served as General Director of Social Prosperity until Petro fired him last week, told Semana on Tuesday that the relationship between Márquez and Petro “remains cold” and the vice president is hurt and saddened by her removal from the Equality Ministry.
“Francia is very sad because they put her to organize a ministry, she spent a year doing that task and, as a civil servant I tell you: one spends at least that much time because you have to look for the resumes, call the people, link them, that takes three months or more. And she had to link 600 people,” Bolívar said.
“Many resolutions, allegedly, were blocked in the [Administrative Department of the Presidency] and other offices of the Casa de Nariño. But, finally, she was able to form the ministry and this year she was very happy because they were going to give results,” he continued. “When she was about to show the country that she was a great executor, she was removed from the ministry. That hurt her a lot, she is still sad.”
Bolívar, described by Semana as a close friend of the Colombian vice president, told the magazine that he does not believe that Márquez will resign from the vice presidency at the end of May to aspire for the Colombian presidency and will instead remain at her position, to which she was elected for a period of four years in 2022.
