In Colombia, at-risk youth pay ‘not to kill’

Franklin Mina grew up in a rough Colombian neighborhood ruled by criminals and their mafia law and was destined to become a gangster.

Instead, the 27-year-old is now studying social work at a technical university and running a small business in gang violence-ridden Buenaventura, on Colombia’s Pacific coast.

Mina is benefiting from a new government plan to pay young people between 14 and 28 years old in risk areas to stay out of trouble.

He receives the equivalent of about $250 a month, which he used to buy a computer, a printer and supplies to open an office supply store.

“Since I was a little boy, I know what a gun is, what a bullet is,” Mina told AFP of her childhood in Buenaventura in the Valle de Cauca department.

The city of 324,000 inhabitants, like many others in Colombia, is at the mercy of a violent dispute between criminal gangs.

That kind of childhood, Mina said, “leaves scars that affect a young person’s being and thinking.”

– ‘For my family’ –

At the launch of the Youth in Peace program last year, Colombia’s first ever left-wing president, Gustavo Petro, said that thousands of young people with few options, like Mina, will receive money “to not kill, not to participate in violence , to study’.

The government did not say how much money has been set aside for the initiative or how long it will last.

Since its launch last October, nearly 3,000 young Colombians have become beneficiaries.

Some are in major cities like the capital Bogota, or Medellin, where the government is negotiating peace with drug gangs heirs to fallen King Pablo Escobar’s cocaine empire.

Others come from smaller settlements in the departments of Cauca and Valle del Cauca, where gangs and other armed groups finance themselves through drug trafficking, extortion and other illegal businesses.

In Buenaventura, where the majority of people are of African descent, about 40 percent of people live in poverty and one in four is unemployed.

Many young people have no alternative but to join the world of crime – either by choice or by force.

“I was able to invest the (scholarship) money… to generate income not only for myself, but also for my family,” says Mina, who also uses part of the scholarship for his studies.

Many friends and relatives, he said, were not so lucky and ended up in the clutches of gangs.

“We hope this (initiative) can be expanded and generate opportunities for other young people like me,” he told AFP.

– ‘Wanting to change’ –

To qualify, beneficiaries must come from poverty and live in circumstances where they are at high risk of being recruited by gangs.

They may not have any outstanding warrants.

They receive payments for up to 18 months, and the subsidy can be stopped if, for example, a recipient gets in trouble with the law or stops taking classes.

The project has had its detractors.

Colombia’s right-wing opposition has claimed, without providing evidence, that it is in fact a ruse to finance armed groups with state money.

It is also alleged that there is corruption in the selection of beneficiaries.

Petro tries to liberate Colombia from sixty years of armed conflict between left-wing guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries, drug cartels and the army.

He tries to negotiate peace with various groups, while also tackling the root causes of the violence with projects such as ‘Youth in Peace’.

For Mina, violence is “a structural problem. But this is the beginning of our ability to transform ourselves.”

Another Buenaventura beneficiary, 21-year-old hotel and tourism student Patricia Riascos, says she uses the grant money to pay for her transportation to class.

She also helps her younger brother, whom she desperately wants to keep away from a life of crime.

“We are people at risk of becoming gangsters, but in reality we are not gangsters,” she told AFP.

“We are people who want to change our lives.”

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