Vice President Francia Márquez took office as the new Minister of Equality after the appointment of President Gustavo Petro, who entrusted her with an important challenge that seeks to benefit the population in terms of equity for various sectors, including the most remote.
However, Senator María Fernanda Cabal does not seem to agree with some ideas, since she criticized the approach that seeks to provide guarantees to some young people in the country, who for the Democratic Center congresswoman are criminals, taking into account that they have been linked to groups outside the law.
The congresswoman replied through her social networks a note from a national media focused on the Youth in Peace program, where thousands of citizens would be benefited through the Ministry of Equality, which will be in charge of said proposal. Although, after the lobbyist learned about a possible income that they would receive, she highlighted the condition in which they were with respect to their judicial past.
Based on the project that the leadership of President Petro has, the congresswoman questioned the benefits that these young people who intend to leave criminal groups would receive, that is, an income that the Government itself would grant them to take a step there was legality, however, For Cabal, those who should get compensation would be the citizens who bet on a country through their work.
“Does being a criminal pay? To the other young people who work for the country, who build their dreams daily, for them little or nothing in the government of change. I propose to help the good guys and subdue the criminals. That is what common sense dictates,” Cabal said.
What is ‘Youth in Peace’ about?
After seeking to implement dialogues with criminal groups in the department of Antioquia, President Gustavo Petro pointed out that the young people who lived in the communes of the capital of Antioquia could be part of the Youth in Peace program, in which they would be rewarded with a sum of money to pay for their studies.
On the subject, on June 4, 2023, Petro noted:
“The possibility of reaching a completely peaceful Medellín is opening up. I want the young people who today make up the gangs in the popular communes in Medellín and in the neighborhoods of the Valle de Aburrá municipalities to join the “youth in peace” program: A citizen income in exchange for education. An issue to be discussed at the socio-legal table that opens between the gang leaders in the Itaguí prison.
Similarly, from La Guajira, the president assured that the Youth in Peace program seeks, from the Ministry of Equality, to improve the quality of life of thousands of people who are close to or tempted to crime, since the conditions in which they develop their social project leaves them completely vulnerable.
“Those excluded young people also have a space in the Ministry of Equality and that is why we have built a sub-directorate for youth in the Ministry. We want various programs to be carried out in the days that are to come as young people in peace, in order to give young people a chance in life before falling into a criminal gang, before carrying an illegal rifle, before confronting and shoot the rifle at another young man of the same race, of the same poverty, just because he has another uniform, another acronym or because he belongs to the State.”
Taking into account that for the president, the only thing that differentiates some young people is the group to which they belong, he asked that the development of young people in dignified spaces be prioritized, where only social projection in terms of peace and equality is used. .
“We cannot have a dignified country while the youth kill the youth in Colombia, and that goes in any sense with youth at peace, youth who can study, youth who can work, youth who can create poetry and art, youth who can investigate ”, he added. with Infobae