From December 19 to 21, Barranquilla will host the National Youth Assembly. According to Law 1885 of 2018, this event should be the pinnacle of youth participation in Colombia: two thousand young people gathered to debate, propose, and develop a national agenda. In theory. Because in practice, several delegations arrive more concerned with the trip, a photo on the beach, and souvenirs from \u201cLa Arenosa\u201d than with the political purpose of the gathering.
And we must speak about this without hesitation: it is increasingly evident that some young people are not attending these events to contribute, but rather to take a vacation at public expense. It\u2019s no secret. You can see it in the chats, the WhatsApp groups, the conversations before the trip: \u201cWhere should we meet?\u201d, \u201cWhat are our plans for tonight?\u201d, \u201cWhat are we going to drink?\u201d As for the political agenda, very little. As for analysis, almost nothing.
The problem isn\u2019t the trip itself\u2014I\u2019m a firm believer that politics is also built in non-institutional spaces. The problem is the carelessness with which we take for granted spaces that cost us decades of youth activism, from the Youth Citizenship Law to the creation of platforms, the CMJ, local processes, and networks that many young people defend every day through hard work and sacrifice. While some pull all-nighters writing reports, organizing working groups, and mobilizing for causes, others simply wait for the government or an institution to fund a weekend of political tourism for them.
In these scenarios, a harsh truth emerges: youth participation is threatened not only by a lack of guarantees from decision-makers but also by a lack of seriousness on the part of some young people. Because you cannot demand representation if, when it is granted, the response is indifference. You can\u2019t talk about \u201cinfluencing public policy\u201d when the real interest is posting a story from the boardwalk or next to the Shakira monument. And even more seriously, this attitude ends up discrediting those who do put in the work\u2014those who actually read documents, draft proposals, stay late at thematic roundtables, and believe that youth politics can transform realities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While some pull all-nighters writing reports, organizing working groups, and advocating for causes, others simply wait for the government or an institution to fund a weekend of political tourism for them.<\/p>\n<\/div>
This isn\u2019t about demonizing the joy or the cultural experience of travel\u2014traveling is valuable, and getting to know our country is even more so\u2014but rather about remembering that these gatherings cost public resources, time, and public trust. Every seat occupied by a \u201cpolitical tourist\u201d is a seat that could have been filled by an organized young person who actually had something to contribute, and that is where the problems are intensifying today, because the conversations revolve around who \u201cdeserves or does not deserve\u201d to be in this Assembly\u2014and it\u2019s not my place to define the requirements\u2014 but being mindful of whom we fund to build is indeed a challenge we face as a country for every forum\u2014whether they be Assemblies, accountability sessions, or departmental festivals\u2014because all young people have the right to participate, but these guarantees that are demanded must also be returned to the people.
Hopefully, this Assembly in Barranquilla won\u2019t turn into just another empty Instagram post. Hopefully, we\u2019ll understand that traveling around the country doesn\u2019t make us leaders\u2014what makes us leaders is what we build when we arrive. And hopefully, those who go just for the sake of going, for the trend, or for a break, will at least have the decency not to call what is really just a subsidized weekend a \u201cpolitical process.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Del 19 al 21 de diciembre Barranquilla ser\u00e1 sede de la Asamblea Nacional de Juventudes. Un espacio que, seg\u00fan la Ley 1885 de 2018, deber\u00eda ser el punto m\u00e1s alto de la participaci\u00f3n juvenil en Colombia: dos mil j\u00f3venes reunidos para debatir, proponer y construir una agenda de pa\u00eds. En teor\u00eda. Porque en la pr\u00e1ctica,…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":948,"template":"","class_list":["post-946","altavoz","type-altavoz","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/altavoz"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz\/946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":962,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/altavoz\/946\/revisions\/962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nextgenc.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}