Can Francia Márquez give voice to Colombia’s forgotten?

While Clemencia Carabali was watching TV coverage of the funerals of five Afro-Colombian teens who had been tortured and killed back in 2020, she did not expect anything could shake her from her anger and grief.

Then, fellow human rights activist Francia Márquez turned to address the cameras to announce a run for Colombia’s top office.

“What a daring thing to do,” Ms. Carabali remembers thinking, after she almost fell from her seat. “In a racist, sexist, classist” country like Colombia, Black women from poor families like Ms. Márquez don’t successfully cross the barriers into national politics, she says.

But that could be about to change.

Ms. Márquez has experienced a meteoric rise over the past several months, from an environmental activist with little national name recognition