Gustavo Petro and Francia Márquez formally started campaign for the presidency

After overcoming a general malaise that caused him to desist from participating in a university debate and a campaign event with the Citizen Force movement, and after obtaining a negative test for covid-19, the presidential candidate of the Historical Pact, Gustavo Petro Urrego, began a journey through the four cardinal points of the country with its vice-presidential formula, Francia Márquez Mina.

His first stop was in the district of Nazaret, the jurisdiction of the municipality of Uribia, the indigenous capital of Colombia, in the department of La Guajira. This place, inhabited by about eight thousand people belonging to the Wayúu and Arijuna ethnic groups, and reached after a 16-hour journey overland, is the northernmost geographical point of continental Colombia that they will visit.

Petro said that during this weekend he will visit the other three cardinal points of the country in Leticia, capital of the Amazonas department; Puerto Carreño, in the department of Vichada and Tumaco, municipality of the Pacific of Nariño.

The candidate will undertake a route of approximately 6,500 kilometers to make his proposals known.

The Afro social leader, Francia Márquez, mentioned that although these geographical points are territories forgotten by the State, they have a lot of history, which is why her campaign is committed to bringing the concept of living tasty.

During his visit to Nazareth there was also room for controversy. The candidates met with the population in Plaza Nuestra Señora del Carmen and there the community arranged some chinchorros to honor the newcomers.

Chinchorros are long looms made with crochet, which are made by the women of the Wayuu community with an ancestral technique transferred from generation to generation. In their cosmogony they are the origin of dreams and are often used for sleep.

However, the campaign team of the Historical Pact placed some chairs on top of the chinchorros, so that France and Petro stepped on the ancestral crafts to be able to sit on them.

The gesture has not been well seen by members of the ethnic community and they have reproached it on social networks as disrespectful and ignorant.

The Wayuu activist, Jasmine Romero Epiayú, said: “Go only to Nazareth, the sacred place and place of origin of every Wayuu being, only to trample on the wayuu chinchorro that was placed as a mat? Indignation runs through all my blood. Well, where are Mr. Gustavo Petro's Wayuu teammates?”

Candidate Petro's press team had not responded to questions on this topic at the time of the closing of this article.

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