Francia Márquez
Francia Elena Márquez Mina (born 1 December 1981) is an Afro-Colombian human-rights and environmental activist in Colombia. She was born in Yolombo, a village in the Cauca Department. She first became an activist at 13, when construction of a dam threatened her community. In August 2020, Márquez announced her candidacy in the 2022 Colombian Presidential Elections. She is the first Colombian woman of African descent to run for the presidency. Márquez's coalition is Pacto Histórico. In her campaign, she has advocated for women, Afro-Colombians and indigenous communities; who have been largely excluded from Colombian  politics. After a great run in the primaries, Francia became the vice presidential candidate for Gustavo Petro's presidential campaign. In 2018 she was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for her work to stop illegal gold mining on her community of La Toma and for her her community organising. Márquez led a protest march of 80 women who trekked 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 for that year. She studied law at . Early life and education . Márquez was born on 1 December 1981, in the village of Yolombó, located in the Suarez municipality of the Cauca department. Her parents are miners, although her mother is also a farmer and midwife. 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 graduate from the National Learning Service of Colombia. In 2020 she obtained a law degree from the University of Santiago de Cali. 2022 presidential election. Francia Márquez announced her run for the 2022 presidential elections  in April 2021, during the National Feminist Convention. The Estamos Listas movement and fellow primary candidate Angelá María Robledo offered their support for Marquez's campaign. In December 2021, after her campaign could not collect the necessary signatures to be an independent candidate, the Polo Democrático Alternativo party endorsed Marquez's campaign. In the March 2022 primary elections for the Historic Pact candidacy, Márquez reached a historical result of 783.160 votes. This result placed her in second place after Gustavo Petro – with the third-highest vote total out of all the primary candidates. Vice presidential campaign. On 23 March 2022 , she accepted the nomination for vice president on the ticket for the Historic Pact, joining Gustavo Petro, for the presidential election to be held on the 29 May 2022. Márquez subsequently promised that if elected, she would move the vice president’s office from Bogotá to Medellín. Petro announced that if victorious, Márquez’s role as vice president would include bolstering equality for ethnic groups and regions facing exclusion.