Deputy Minister of Peoples, linked to sexual harassment case, resigned from Ministry of Equality

Nelson Lemus is no longer the Vice Minister of Ethnic and Peasant Peoples of the Ministry of Equality. This Wednesday he resigned after being linked to a case of alleged sexual harassment of Sandra Milena Cobos, who was an official of the portfolio led by Vice President Francia Márquez.

"In response to your request, I am writing to you with the purpose of resigning and relinquishing my position as Vice Minister of Ethnic and Peasant Peoples, effective today," the letter says.

In the letter, Lemus maintains his position that in his actions towards Cobos "no moral, ethnic or legal norm has been broken." At the end of the letter, he made himself a victim and said that the accusations by Sandra Milena Cobos, whom he allegedly sexually harassed, "have generated all kinds of judgments and prejudices in the media against me, which violates my rights and puts me at high risk as an indigenous, social and community leader."

Lemus's alleged victim left the Ministry of Equality in protest at the way her complaint was handled. In response to the warnings, the heads of the ministry allegedly decided to confront her with the alleged aggressor.

"Be careful. There is a sexual harasser in the vice-villages. There are complaints." This was the phrase found written in a bathroom at the Ministry of Equality 24 hours after Sandra Milena Cobos Angulo, who was the national leader of projects on self-sufficient economies for ethnic and peasant communities, resigned.

In her resignation letter, Cobos Angulo accused the Vice Minister of Ethnic and Peasant Peoples, Nelson Lemus, of allegedly sexually harassing her. The Vice Minister allegedly expressed his personal interest in the official and hinted at traveling alone to the territories. The victim also allegedly received invitations outside of the workplace and physical approaches without her consent.

Juan Sebastian Lombo Delgado