The presidential elections in Colombia, whose first round takes place next Sunday, will have some novelties compared to the previous ones. In addition to having the left as a favorite in a country that has never been governed by this trend and being the first, in recent times, in which uribismo _current led by the right-wing caudillo Álvaro Uribe_ is not the dominant force, it has also been a plea in which racism entered the debate as never before.
Of the six main presidential candidates, four have Afro-Colombian candidates as their runners-up.
The main one is Francia Márquez, 40, a lawyer, a single mother at age 16, an environmental activist recognized for her fight against illegal mining. However, neither for her nor for the others, the campaign has been easy. She is the candidate for vice of the leader in the polls, Gustavo Petro. Disqualifying adjectives are heard on the streets and on the networks. Francia Márquez has already survived an attack, receives death threats regularly and is the target of memes and a dirty campaign on social media. The same cyber harassment occurs with engineer Luis Gilberto Murillo, Sergio Fajardo’s deputy, currently in fourth place in the polls.
The appearance of black candidates in the first line of the competition, however, does not mean the end of obstacles. Colombia is still an extremely racist country, especially in the Andean region and in the large cities inhabited by the elite _on the coast, there is a greater appreciation of Afro culture and heritage. It is no wonder that during the protests that took place in 2021, Afro-Colombians, as well as indigenous people, were among the protagonists.
Originally initiated on account of a tax reform proposal, the demonstrations soon gained strength when they were joined by the banners of the fight against inequality and for the rights of minorities. The conflicts in the city of Cali, harshly repressed, were a demonstration of the size of the problem.
In addition to the protests, other events at the same time shed light on racism in Colombia. One of them was the murder of 19-year-old Anderson Arboleda in Puerto Tejada, in the Department of Cauca, by the police for violating the quarantine rules imposed due to the coronavirus pandemic. The episode became a national scandal, and gained prominence for having occurred shortly before the murder of George Floyd in the USA. Arboleda became a symbol of police violence against blacks in Colombia.
Colombia currently has 50.1 million inhabitants and is predominantly mestizo. Of these, according to the last official census (2018), 10% are Afro-Colombians. One of the country’s biggest social problems, “desplazamiento”, that is, the displacement of populations forced to abandon their lands and homes in the countryside due to violence, directly affects Afro-Colombians. A quarter of “desplazados” across the country are black.
The population of the country’s poorest departments, such as Guajira and Chocó, is also predominantly Afro, where poverty exceeds 60% of the population _a contrast with the country’s average, around 33%.
In 2018, then-President Juan Manuel Santos made a gesture in favor of ending racism. He ordered a tribute to Juan José Nieto Gil, a black writer and military man who held the presidency for just six months, in 1861, in the midst of a civil war. In the presidential portrait gallery at the Palácio de Nariño, his image, however, is that of a light-skinned man. Santos asked that a new portrait, this time faithful to reality, be painted, and this is how Nieto Gil appears today at the seat of government.
The debate on racial inclusion is still in its infancy in a country that, until today, has been ruled by a small elite and has so many social problems.
May the 2022 elections truly open space for a more egalitarian Colombia.
