Bryan always wanted to study medicine to ‘help those who need‘, but was born in the forgotten and hit Colombian region of Catatumbo, where higher education is scarce and the lack of opportunities condemns young people to leave their studies and work ‘in what comes out’, especially ‘to scrape’ Coke.
(See: The ‘total peace’ of Petro that aspires to deactivate the violence of the country).
Alexandra does not doubt either: she wants to study systems engineering now that she has finished high school, she tells ‘EFE’ while helping in a communal pot in El Tarramunicipality of the department of Norte de Santander.
“I have a son, and that is what motivates me the most to get ahead”, explains, aware as Bryan that Access to college it is something titanic for them.
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But both are hopeful for the promise of President Gustavo Petro: the University of Catatumboa ‘University of Peace’ for an area where for decades nothing more than the armed conflict and coca as an economic livelihood have been known.
The Tarra was chosen to build the first headquarters of this university about which there are still more doubts than certainties, but in which so much national administration as the local have put the priority so that Colombia stop seeing Catatumbo as the main coca warehouse.
After he came to power and in one of his first trips as presidentPetro assured, in the middle of a mass bath, that “A bigger, more powerful Catatumbo is possible, if on the side of the Government we are capable of producing, of increasing the productivity of the region, of bringing the public university to this municipality.”
Fight against the imposed destiny
catatumbo
Andrés Carvajal-THE TIME
Both Bryan and Alexandra were unable to continue their studies, firstly because there is no higher education offer in your area, and second, because they are forced to work at what they have to do to help their families.
“In the kitchen, on the farm, in whatever comes my way”, insists Alexandra, who has just turned 18 and has a one and a half year old son.
The youth of Catatumbo are forced to immerse themselves, one way or another, in the illegal economy that has become the livelihood of the region: coca has allowed a development that the State never took and gives work to those who do not find more opportunities.
Petro “He is the first president who dares to touch the lands of Catatumbo, (since) past presidents only said that ‘those from Catatumbo are guerrillas’“Alexandra laments.
This area is known for the high presence of illegal armed groups, both FARC dissidents and the guerrillas of the Army of National Liberation (ELN) and paramilitaries, who are fighting for control of coca.
In fact, the Catatumbo It is one of the priority regions of the petro government to promote its policy ‘full peace‘, which not only seeks to negotiate an end to violence with armed groups, but also encompasses strategies to guarantee the development of the most abandoned territories in the country, especially in terms of education and health.
“We are people who want to get ahead. Thank you that Petro gave us Catatumberos this opportunity to get ahead”applauds Alexandra, hopeful before the possibility of studying at the university and that your child can do it too when he grows up.
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coca crops.
EFE
This is a project “really to transform territory”, celebrated the mayor of the Tarra, Yair Diaz.
At the moment “no more than 1% access” from young people to college closest, which is Ocaña, details to ‘EFE’.
The ground to start the construction of the University of Catatumbo is already prepared for ‘attend to the needs of young people in the region: in the case of El Tarra, we have more than 1,500 young people who have not been able to access university’.
(See: The step by step of the Government to evaluate a truce with armed groups).
To these are added thousands of others. from nearby municipalitiesincluding those on the Venezuelan side due to the proximity of the border.
It is also “a way of reactivating the economic issue, looking for other alternatives” to coca, adds the mayor.
For now, the ‘University of Peace’ bill with a budget of 39,000 million pesos (about 8 million dollars) to start with the first steps.
The ‘University of Peace‘ will open “the doors to the youth of Catatumbo so that they can study what they want, because studying what they want, they will study the careers that allow linking knowledge to the territory; knowledge to the land; the to know the furrow, to the transformation”, praise Petro about a project thatAlthough it will require a great effort, it has excited a region that decades ago only received bad news.
EFE
