Francia Márquez
Francia Elena Márquez Mina is an Afro-Colombian human-rights and environmental activist in Colombia. She first became an activist at 13, when construction of a dam threatened her community
She was awarded in the Goldman Environmental Prize in 2018 for her work to stop illegal gold mining on her community of La Toma and the organising a protest march of 80 women who trekked 350 miles to Bogotá, the capital, to demand the removal of all illegal miners and equipment from their community.
A single mother of two, she was born in Yolombo, a village in the Cauca region. She went on to study law at [Santiago de Cali University.
