The Vice President of Costa Rica, Epsy Campbell, assured this past Wednesday that the participation of Afro-descendant women in Latin American politics is “really deplorable” and stressed that it must grow.
“There is a very notorious absence of participation of Afro-women in decision-making bodies. If we take into reference that, in general, women have been increasing participation, when we look at the composition of congresses or ministerial cabinets in different countries, we see little participation of women,” she said.
She remarked this during a meeting with the Afro-descendant community at the Training Center that the Spanish Cooperation has in Montevideo, where she was accompanied by the Spanish ambassador to Uruguay, José Javier Gómez-Llera.
Consistent with this, Campbell explained that if you consider that 22% of women across the region are of African descent, then there should be more of them in decision-making positions. However, she stressed that this is only seen in Caribbean countries.
For this reason, she explained that the main challenges are for the quota laws to have “an intercultural perspective.” In this way, indicating that there should also be indigenous women.
A cultural change
“We would have to take some measures, some of which are administrative and others legal, to guarantee this condition of interculturality in the quota laws. There is work to be done at the internal level of the political parties,”said the Tico Vice President. Also adding that “a cultural change” is required, which passes, for example, through the educational system and the media.
Finally, she assured that she believes in joint laws.“We can no longer continue with the quota thing and move slowly. I think there has to be an obligation, that all decision-making spaces are shared by men and women,” she concluded.
Historic visit
This past Wednesday, Campbell concluded a visit to Uruguay in which she held meetings with various authorities, including the country’s President and Foreign Minister, Luis LacallePou and Francisco Bustillo, respectively.
In addition, during the visit she was also declared an Illustrious Visitor of Montevideo by the head of the local Government, Carolina Cosse, and this was honored in one of the most touristic places in the country, Punta del Este (southeast of the country).
