It is no secret that there has been such a marked distancing between President Gustavo Petro and Vice President Francia Márquez for quite some time now.

However, Márquez had tried not to add fuel to the fire, avoiding responding to President Petro, despite the comments the head of state had made on various occasions.

But this Friday, July 25, the vice president decided to talk about everything in the middle of an event in Cali and took aim at President Petro. She did so during a speech she gave at the Universidad Libre de Cali, southern campus, in the framework of International Day of Women of African Descent.

In her speech, Márquez said that she went from being a political phenomenon in Colombia, a heroine, to a"traitor." Between the lines, she said that this was partly due to her skin color.

"Because in this country, when a Black woman rises, suspicion follows her. The system doesn't question her abilities, but whether she's in the position she deserves. If she goes beyond the assigned threshold, then she's 'arrogant,' 'disloyal,' 'clumsy,' 'incapable,' and 'dangerous,'" the Petro government official pointed out.

The vice president also stated that there are Afro-descendant leaders serving in a government that calls itself progressive, but where racism is evident.

“We are seeing Black leaders participating in the dynamics of power, in governments that call themselves progressive, but that still bear the hallmarks of a racial state. As James Baldwin said, not everything that is confronted can be changed, but nothing can change until it is confronted. And that's what we are doing today: confronting,” Márquez added.

In this regard, she said she wanted to be clear and that she wasn't going to stay silent; so much so that she let it be known that she felt like screaming.

“I want to be clear: I'm not here to stay silent. I'm not going to pretend it doesn't hurt, that it doesn't tire, that it doesn't wear me down. I want to scream, I want to tell you how this country drags us into its narratives of exclusion, suffocates us with its mistrust, and then blames us for not breathing,” the vice president said.

On the other hand, the official indicated that, from the campaign until today, she has experienced episodes of"delegitimization, sabotage, and exclusion."

“I was given the mission of creating an institution without structure, without resources, without support. They told me: ‘Do it yourself.’ And when I argued that three deputy ministries were too many, they demanded five. I did it, despite the systematic blockade. They accused me of not executing, when they never gave me the instrument to do so. The idea was promoted that because I'm black, I'm sure to steal. Without having touched a peso, they treated me like a criminal. Because the color of my skin, sadly, for many, ‘makes me guilty.’ They demanded that I be submissive. When I demanded respect, they called me arrogant. Little by little, what was said to me in private is becoming public. Now that I'm cautious, I'm accused of complicity for keeping silent. This isn't just personal. This is structural,” she asserted.