Colombia activates its ‘Africa Strategy’ with a controversial trip by its vice president

Colombia’s Vice President Francia Marquez is preparing for a high-level tour to Africa with dozens of business people and government officials.

The leader will visit Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia as part of the Petro administration calls the ‘Africa Strategy’.

Francia Márquez will visit several African countries in the coming weeks.

According to El Tiempo’s journalist María Isabel Rueda, the vice president will travel in an Air Force plane with an entourage of about 60 people.

This would include artists, delegates of the chambers of commerce, and possibly ministers, among which the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Peace, Álvaro Leyva.

The second in command plans to visit Senegal, South Africa, Kenya, and Ethiopia.

The trip will serve for Colombia to reopen an embassy in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa since the Colombian representation is currently in the hands of the Embassy in Kenya.

Colombia had an ambassador in Ethiopia between 1967 and 1968, but since then has had no representative in the country.

The vice president’s visit is part of the so-called Africa Strategy, an initiative created to coordinate cooperation with the Afro-descendant and indigenous movement at the international level incorporated in President Gustavo Petro’s National Development Plan for 2022-2026.

As part of this strategy, on March 31, Deputy Foreign Minister Francisco Coy received the credentials of the South African ambassador, Lindiwe Maseko.

Both diplomats “reviewed opportunities to develop the bilateral agenda, mobility issues, peace, reconciliation, trade, science, and technology” during the meeting, according to the Colombian Foreign Ministry.

Likewise, Maseko had met a few days before with representatives of the Von Humboldt Institute of Bogota, a center oriented to scientific research on biodiversity, considered a “strategic ally” of the Colombian Foreign Ministry to promote biodiversity interests between both countries.

CRITICISM CONTINUES

Marquez’s visit to the African continent was not exempt from criticism.

In that sense, the journalist, who advanced the vice president’s itinerary, questioned the number of companions that the Afro-Colombian would have during her trip.

“There is nothing wrong with the vice-president going to the continent, as a worthy representative of the Afro-Colombian people, to strengthen relations.”

“On the contrary, great, because it is the continent of the future, but does she need to be accompanied by 60 people on her ‘tour’?” Rueda said.

This is not the first time Marquez has been questioned since she assumed her role in the Casa de Nariño.

Recently, the vice president was criticized for alleged excessive use of the presidential helicopter, a transport she has been using since she received threats against her security.

When consulted, Marquez defended using the aircraft and indicated that, like her, all presidents and vice presidents of the country had used the presidential aircraft.

Likewise, since Petro has been at the helm of Colombia, the vice president has been subjected to offenses that give a glimpse of male chauvinism, racism, and classism, still present in the country, as denounced by representatives of the ruling party.

With information from Sputnik