A Colombian court has issued the country's first conviction under a racial harassment law after a local official likened black and indigenous people to a "cancer," prosecutors said Friday.

Councilman Fernando Antonio Delgado made the inflammatory remarks during an August 2012 meeting and was the first person to be convicted under a 2011 anti-discrimination law, according to prosecutors.

"Black people, displaced people and indigenous people are a cancer affecting national and global governance," the official, from the town of Marsella in the western Risaralda department, had said.

Colombia is home to a diverse mix of ethnic groups, but Afro-Colombians and indigenous people have long suffered significant discrimination.

Delgado now faces possible jail time of 12-36 months, though this could be set even higher because he is a public official. He may also be stripped of his office.

Various community members welcomed the ruling.

Jorge Enrique Machado, a representative for local indigenous people, said it "refutes the arguments of those who were saying this was only an opinion."