ANKARA
Conventional Colombian wisdom says “No hay mal que dure 100 anos, ni cuerpo que lo resista,” or “There is no evil that lasts 100 years, or body that resists it.”
After centuries of fighting for independence against Western colonial powers, Colombians secured their freedom but now struggle to cope with a myriad of social misfortunes.
Three years after solving the perennial insurgency ordeal of Colombia, at least on paper, a wave of protests hit the homeland of notorious narco kingpin Pablo Escobar, where unions and student groups have held two national strikes in less than a week.
In late November, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators decisively raised their voices against rampant corruption, pervasive human rights abuses and unpopular economic initiatives of the government of President Ivan Duque.
Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, the father of aphorisms who died in 1900, once famously said: “I am not too young to know everything.”
Regardless of his distrust of the youth, Anadolu Agency talked to several Colombian university students from the capital Bogota about their take on the ripple of protests that turned into a massive test and the future they imagine for themselves in the Latin American country.
Read more: Will Colombia protests yield blood or bloom of youth?
