In the parade ground of the Military School of Cadets, the president Gustavo Petro advances the ceremony of presentation and recognition of troops and the new Military Dome.
The president, in the midst of a call for change to La Paz, received military honors and sworn in the Minister of National Defense, Iván Velásquez, and the commanders of the Military Forces, National Army, Navy and Air Force.
In the middle of the ceremony, Petro referred to the protection of the environment by the hand of the military forces, and called them to be an engine of the industrialization in Colombia.
“We could look at the United States and we see that the internet was invented, that it was born as a defense mechanism and now, the internet has changed the course of the industrialization (…) So research and industrialization can be legitimate objectives of some military forces that they put themselves in that task, ”he said.
He also proposed that “every general has also been a soldier, to remove that social differentiation” within the Military Forces.
“That every person who enters with the idea of a military career, can achieve higher education with the national budget. The fact of being a soldier should guarantee the possibility of obtaining a university degree, in such a way that a professional soldier, when he goes out into civilian life, has the options to be able to live and does not have to become a mercenary for an illegal gang, just because he knows how to handle a rifle,” he added.
In the same way, he said that to achieve this, a budget is needed and he opened the door to a change in the investment that is made within the Armed Forces.
