Colombia's Vice President Francia Elena Màrquez Mina jetted into the country and held talks with Kenya's Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua on Monday, May 15.
Born in the early 1980s, Mina is the first Afro-Descendant woman to hold the country's second most powerful office.
She is an environmental and community activist, a cause she has pursued since she was 13 years old.
Her journey to the top political position has however not been smooth sailing.
Francia is a 40-year-old Afro-Colombian who grew up on the shores of the Ovejas River in Colombia where her activism journey began.
When she was 13 years old, she chose to fight for her community, the La Toma, after the construction of a dam forced their eviction from their ancestral land.
She started out her career as a housekeeper and later decided to pursue law to better understand how to fight and defend her community, leaving behind her two children.
However, in 2014, she dropped out of law school in another fight for the community and the environment after receiving reports that there was illegal mining activity at the banks of Ovejes River where she grew up.
When her efforts to confront the miners failed, she organised a 10-day 350 km march where more than 80 women participated in drawing national attention to the cause.
The women spent 22 days in Colombia’s capital city, protesting on the streets and negotiating with the Colombian government over illegal mining activities.
"I think it’s important to focus on women because women have given birth to life. And the women who can use maternal love can defend the territory. I think it is time for women to take the reins," Francia stated in an interview with the Earth Island Journal in 2018.
Following the protest, the Colombian government created a national task force on illegal mining for the first time in 2015.
The Vice President had been harassed and had received threats on her life because of her relentless nature in fighting illegal mining, forcing her to relocate with her children.
“When I was forcibly displaced with my children, I thought about how I couldn’t keep putting my children in danger. But then activism becomes part of your life. Even though I’ve tried to step away, I haven’t been able to," she added.
Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua while welcoming Francia to Kenya on Monday, March 15, lauded her for being a true hustler because of her resilience in fighting for the freedom of the people and rising from a housekeeper to the vice president position.
"This visit is very exciting and equally significant because a girlchild from the generation of African slaves and freedom fighters rose from a housekeeper to the second most powerful office in the government of Colombia.
"You have a sustained legacy of fighting for the freedom and dignity of the people. You are indeed a real hustler," Gachagua stated.
In 2018, she was awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize for her work in stopping illegal mining.
Francia decided to continue her law education earning a degree in 2020. She proceeded to pursue another degree in creative writing in 2021.
In 2022, she was nominated for the VP position, joining presidential candidate Gustavo Petro as his running mate for Colombia’s presidential election to be held on May 29, 2022.
Colombia, whose capital city is Bogota, has a population of about 50 million and is the fourth largest country in South America.
