Colombian singer Marbelle is being accused of racism after calling Colombia’s vice-presidential candidate Francia Marquéz from King Kong.
Marquéz is a black woman and is on the ticket of Gustavo Petro, presidential candidate for the Colombia Humana party.
Marbelle shared a poster with a photo of Petro and Marquéz and added her comment “Cacas y King Kong” (Poop and King Kong, in Portuguese). The singer deleted the tweet hours after posting it this Monday afternoon (28).
Petro is the favorite in the electoral dispute after positive results in the Coalition Pacto Histórico primaries and his vice belongs to the Polo Democratico Alternative party. If elected, Petro and Marquéz, from the left, will replace Iván Duque, from the right.
With the largest bench in the Colombian Senate, Petro, who is a former guerrilla, brought the best result for the left in the country since 2006. He is the former mayor of the capital, Bogotá, and supports the state’s peace agreement with the FARC ( Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia), signed in 2016 by then-President Juan Manuel Santos.
On Twitter, followers of the singer and other users of the network accuse Marbelle of racism. See some of the publications:
This is not the first time Marbelle has been accused of racism against Marquéz.
When Petro announced that the human rights activist would be his deputy if he won the elections, Marbelle published, also on Twitter, a comment in which he said that it would be better if Petro had chosen “Blanquita” as his deputy, according to the Argentine portal Infobae, which covers stories from Spanish-speaking countries.
Blanquita is a black character who was the image of the Clorox brand which, among other products, sold bleach. Under pressure from activists from the black movement, the brand decided to change and retire the character in 2020.
The character was already portrayed in the 1980s as an employee who approved the use of Clorox bleach.
Marbelle and Marquéz did not respond to the report’s contact until the publication of this text.
