Smiling Meghan Markle embraces Colombia’s VP as tour kicks off

Harry and Meghan have arrived in Colombia at the start of a four-day visit to the Latin American nation – with pictures showing them warmly greeting the country’s vice president shortly after landing in Bogota.

The Duchess of Sussex was invited to the country by VP Francia Márquez after she learned of her story in depth via the couple’s two-part Netflix documentary.

The Sussexes were pictured smiling and walking hand-in-hand in Bogota shortly after meeting Ms Márquez earlier today; official pictures show Meghan smiling broadly as she greets the top politician.

Meghan wore a navy blue Veronica Beard summer suit – comprised of £448 trousers and a £598 waistcoat – along with a £3,775 Loro Piana ‘Loom’ White handbag. 

She also wore shoes that resembled a pair of £595 Manolo Blahnik court shoes she has been seen in before. Harry put on a unifying front with his own outfit, donning a matching dark suit, light blue shirt and black dress shoes. 

The couple have a busy schedule for the days ahead on the royal-in-all-but-name tour three months after their Nigeria visit – starting with a visit to local children’s school, the Colegio Cultura Popular, which is under heavy armed guard.

It is their second so-called quasi-royal engagement after a trip to Nigeria earlier this year.

They were invited to Colombia for their quasi royal tour after the country’s vice president saw them on Netflix and was ‘moved’ by their story.

Harper’s Bazaar, the Sussex-sympathetic publication which is accompanying the couple on the trip, reports the couple were met by Ms Marquez after landing. 

Meghan and Harry then presented Ms Marquez and her partner, Rafael Yerney Pinillo, with an unspecified personal gift ahead of a closed-door tea and coffee hour with traditional pan de bono – Colombian cheese bread.

The Duke and Duchess stayed at the residence for half an hour, where the Vice President expressed her gratitude for the couple’s official visit.

Ms Marquez described the Sussexes’ trip as a ‘very special visit’ aimed at building bridges and joining forces against cyber-bullying and online digital violence and discrimination, as well as promoting women’s leadership in Colombia.

The Sussexes’ team has not confirmed how the trip is being funded, whether privately, through Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Foundation, by the Colombian government or other means.

The quasi-royal tour, which has many similarities to the programme of an official royal overseas visit, is the Sussexes’ second this year, after their three-day visit to Nigeria at the invitation of the West African nation’s chief of defence staff.

Harper’s Bazaar magazine, covering the trip as the only words pool, said Ms Marquez shared her personal admiration for Harry’s late mother Diana, Princess of Wales.

During the sit-down chat, Ms Marquez said she shared the same ideals and goals as Harry and Meghan amid their campaign to make the digital world safer for children. 

Ms Marquez took Harry and Meghan to visit city centre public school Centro Nacional Cultura Popular.

Harry and Meghan chatted with a group of around 20 students aged between 12 and 18. The kids spoke about what they like and what worries them about technological change.

Headmaster Leonel Umaña, 51, said the visit had focussed on an anti-cyber bullying project. 

Although there was a translator at hand, Meghan showed off her good command of Spanish, Mr Umaña said. 

He added: ‘She speaks Spanish well. We had to explain a few of our typical Colombian slang words that our students use and that caused a few laughs and jokes.

‘At first we were told that there were to be no mobile phones or pictures due to protocol.

‘But when we finished the session and toured the school with them they broke the protocol and posed for pictures with the kids.

‘Harry told the teachers to keep up their good work, which they loved.’

Across the next four days, the Sussexes will take in the city of Bogotá before heading off to Cartagena and Cali as part of a ‘cultural and social’ visit. 

Harry will also meet members of the Team Colombia squad participating in the Invictus Games, who are gearing up for the 2025 games in Whistler, Canada. 

Officials have kept the itinerary a closely guarded secret as parts of the country are described as ‘best avoided’ due to ongoing internal conflicts.

Colombia, like Nigeria, is seen as a high risk destination in parts by the Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office. 

‘FCDO advises against all but essential travel to parts of Colombia,’ the government agency says, adding that many armed groups remain active in the country despite a 2016 peace deal between the government and revolutionary outfit FARC. 

Besides several police cars and vans, armed soldiers were also deployed to protect Harry and Megan in a massive ring of steel.

Roads were blocked off and residents forced on lengthy detours to reach their homes or wait at checkpoints for events to finish so they could carry on.

Security is also tight due to death threats on the host for their trip Ms Marquez. She has been targeted before in the past as have her relatives including an attack on her father Sigifredo Márquez Trujillo just two months ago when a car he was in was wracked with gunfire. He was unharmed. 

At the time she expressed her ‘concern for security in Cauca, Valle del Cauca, in the municipality of Suárez and the district of La Toma, as well as for the security of my community and my family’.

Ms Marquez told reporters earlier today the purpose of the visit was to ‘build bridges and open doors’ in order to tackle the problem of cyberbullying and discrimination online, particularly for young people.

She is reported to have told Harry and Meghan that they share the same goals when it comes to safety and mental health on social media.

However, she did not disguise that the trip will serve as a way of showing Colombia on the global stage – leading to fears that the Sussexes are being manipulated to shore up the vice-president’s reputation following a number of scandals. 

Colombian president Gustavo Petro, a former guerilla soldier, has a 34 per cent approval rating among voters and he has sacked centrist figured in his cabinet who opposed his expensive healthcare and pension plans.

Ms Marquez has been accused of using helicopters like taxis in order to shuttle herself back and forth from work. In the past, when asked why she used them so frequently, she is reported to have said she was the vice president, so ‘too bad.’

The VP says the visit has been on the cards for a year after she invited Meghan to the country a year ago on July 25, International Afro-descendant Women’s Day. 

Meghan had made much of her African descent during she and Harry’s visit to Nigeria in May this year – their first ‘in all but name’ royal tour together. 

Ms Marquez said today: ‘We wanted to invite Meghan, an Afro-descendant woman, to participate in that meeting and share her experiences. 

‘At that time we sent her a letter inviting her and she responded to us – the letter said that she couldn’t come but she was eager to visit and get to know our country. 

‘Since then we have been working for a year to achieve this visit, which is so important and good. 

‘(As for) how I met Meghan and Harry, well, I met them in the media but above all I saw the series on Netflix about her life and her story and that moved me and motivated me to say: this is a woman who deserves to come to our country and tell her story. 

‘Without a doubt it will be a strengthening for so many women in the world.’

She also said of the visit: ‘I also want to take advantage of the media, of national and international communication, to invite the world to visit our country. 

‘Colombia is a country with enormous cultural wealth, with unique biodiversity and strong people who want to get ahead.

‘Colombia, the country of beauty, wants to be the best host and so it will be.’

For Ms Marquez, part of the reason for the trip may be that she sees Meghan as an ally in cyberbullying. 

Ms Márquez claims she was the victim of over 12,000 racist comments on social media last year – and she has been the target of death threats and attacks.

She has been targeted in the past, as have her relatives – including an attack on her father Sigifredo Márquez Trujillo just two months ago when a car he was in was wracked with gunfire.

At the time of the attack, which took place on Father’s Day, Ms Márquez said: ‘It pains my heart, that just this day, my father was attacked. 

‘I report that my father, along with my 6-year-old nephew and the two men of protection, suffered an attack on the Suarez-Cali road, near Timba, fortunately they were unharmed and are well. 

‘I express my concern for security in Cauca, Valle del Cauca, in the municipality of Suárez and the district of La Toma, as well as for the security of my community and my family.’

She is the first black vice-president of Colombia and last year a woman was convicted after making a racist rant in which she called Ms Marquez an ‘ape’.

The Associated Press reported the woman, Luz Fabiola Rubiano, said: ‘Francia Márquez is an ape … what education can Black people have, they steal, attack and kill.’ She pleaded guilty to the charges in April 2023.

She told the press conference: ‘I think I have told the story, the history of racism and racial discrimination from when I was a child, I’ve been aware of it since I was 13. 

‘For women today that are involved in politics in the world, we are exposed to a level of violence on social networks that affects our wellbeing (and) our dignity.’