A former porn actor will become the new Colombian Minister of Equality, a controversial choice against the backdrop of repeated changes in the left government of President Gustavo Petro.
Juan Carlos Florián, who publicly admits that he was a sex worker and a creator of pornographic content, was appointed to this portfolio created in 2023 to guarantee access to the social programs of the most vulnerable communities, a government communications official told AFP.
The creation of a Ministry of Equality was a campaign promise of the Vice-President Francia Márquez, the first black woman to access these functions in the history of Colombia. Francia Márquez had taken the lead from the Ministry of Equality but she resigned in February after disagreements with the Colombian President and having denounced “racism” within the government.
It was replaced by another black leader, Carlos Rosero, but he was then accused by the Head of State of having tried to dismiss Juan Carlos Florián, then Vice-Minister. Carlos Rosero was also accused of having dismissed an official who was an ex-porn actor.
Gustavo Petro, who was elected in June 2022, presented the new minister as having been a “porn actor” who worked with him when he was mayor of Bogota and having created “a union of sex workers” in France, where he lived. Mr. Florián and others “had to go into exile and prostitute himself in Paris,” he said.
“I was more than a simple porn player”, “I have more than 20 years of professional experience in various international cooperation organizations and I was a civil servant”, defended himself in January Juan Carlos Florián in an interview with the newspaper El Espectador, after the outcry aroused by his appointment to the Vice-Minister.
“Sex work is a job like any other and one cannot attack those who exercise it” and thus “submit to the needs of their families”, had continued this manager, believing that they are “part of the working class”.
