A woman will be sentenced for discrimination and harassment for uttering racist insults against the Vice President of Colombia, Francia Márquez, who achieved a milestone by becoming the lthe first Afro-descendant to hold the high office in the country.
Luz Fabiola del Rosario de Fátima Rubiano de Fonseca, 62, accepted on Monday in front of a judge the charges against her —which can no longer be retracted— for having called Márquez an “ape” in a demonstration. She will receive a conviction at a hearing that was scheduled for May 30.
Rubiano de Fonseca’s pejorative comments were captured by the press in the middle of a demonstration against the government in September 2022. “Francia Márquez is an ape… What education can a black man have, blacks steal, rob and kill”, assured the woman in front of the steps of the Congress.
The video quickly went viral on social networks, opening a debate in the country on racism and turning the Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the identity of the woman, who in the video falsely said her name was Esperanza Castro.
During Monday’s hearing, the Prosecutor’s Office accused the woman for her “hateful intervention” that caused “damage to the honor of a population group and directly to the vice president” affecting the right to equality. The prosecutor indicated that By referring to Márquez as an “ape”, the defendant “went beyond her right to free expression.”
Márquez was the victim of discriminatory comments due to her skin color during last year’s electoral campaign when she was contemptuously called “King Kong”. Since her inauguration in August 2022 together with President Gustavo Petro, Márquez has raised her voice against racism that, as he warns, it persists in the country as a “legacy” of colonialism and slavery, which in Colombia was abolished more than 170 years ago.
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