Francia Marquez: The Constitutional Court of Colombia overthrows the creation of the Ministry of Equality

The Constitutional Court of Colombia this Wednesday overturned the law with which the Ministry of Equality was created, led by the vice president France Marquezconsidering that there were procedural defects in Congress.

The high court indicated in its decision that in the creation process no fiscal impact analysis of that new portfolio.

He also deferred his decision for the term of two legislatures, which is why the Ministry will continue to exist until 2026.

“Once the 2025-2026 legislature ends, Law 2281 of 2023 will definitively cease to have effects and will not form part of the legal system”according to Constitutional Court.

The lawsuit that the Court ruled had been filed by Senator Paloma Valencia, of the Uribista party. Democratic Centerwho assured that the Ministry of Equality was “pure bureaucracy”.

The congresswoman said that the Ministry has a budget of “1.3 trillion pesos (about 333 million dollars), of which 900,000 million pesos (about 230 million dollars) were to distribute positions and barely 400,000 million pesos (about 103 million dollars) for the investment what is needed for Colombians”.

“What we show is that the Government never showed a fiscal impact study on this project”he added Valencia in a video published on their social networks.

In June of last year, the president Gustavo Petro put his signature on the documents that officially gave the green light to the Ministry of Equalitya campaign promise and appointed as head of that portfolio Marquez.

The new portfolio, whose creation was approved by the Congress in December 2022, takes care of 14 townsin addition to women, LGTBIQ+ population, people with disabilities, racializedand even excluded populations especially affected by inequality, such as farmers, people living on the street or migrants.

The Ministry is divided into five vice-ministries: Women, Youth, Territories and excluded populations, Diversities and population with disabilities and Ethnic peoples and peasants.

However, the vice president has been criticized because the Ministry of Equality This year it has executed less than 1% of its budget.