María José Castañeda, president of the National Student Association, spoke to see that the students with the ICETEX (Colombian Institute for Educational Credit and Technical Studies abroad) multiplied despite the campaign promises of the president, Gustavo Petro , and after regretting that the Head of State leaves this Friday, February 21, pointing out from his account to other culprits, except him or his government.
Petro assured in X: “This report does not take into account the most important data, it was the Constitutional Court, in its wisdom – although it does not understand the reasons -, which by majority decided to declare unconstitutional the zero interest rate for credits, which the Government managed to approve in Congress. I ask why the Colombian right shouts now because there are no subsidies at the Icetex’s loan interest rate when it was she who promoted her collapse in court, and also definanced the State so that my government did not meet its program? That is why the government turned fully to achieve free at the public university. We have already created 130,000 new completely free quotas throughout the country. ”
In this way, President Petro questioned a report that collects the testimonies of students who were key to choosing the president, in which they express their Total frustration because Petro promised them to condemn debts and now they have to pay much more for their study credits. On the contrary to what was promised by him. “Well, what we have known about young people is that they are quite worried, some will try Here it is clear that these decisions are irresponsible. And I would like to tell them something, that I was listening to them from the president’s trill, and I want to tell the president not to be irresponsible and not deceive the people, ”said Castañeda in the Blu Radio station.
“What knocked them down was article 95 of the tax reform that deduced that the IES subsidized the rate to the people in the study stage and that nothing has to do with the people who are in payment period, which is a to Those who today removed the interest rate subsidy. So, here what we want to invite the president is not to deceive people and do not divert the debate the main, ”he added. “And the main thing is that they are today more than 186,000 families; Young people and their families are the ones who end up paying this irresponsibility. ”
“This is part of the political will of the government, that is, the lack of political will, but also, I believe that This is part of its usual behavior, of improvised behaviorstatements that are not clear. In addition, there is something to point out here and it is that we do not have been fighting the reform of the Icetex 3 years ago that Gustavo Petro came to power. No. We come since 2018 denouncing that Icetex has no solidity, that Icetex has background problems and we told him, when Gustavo Petro arrived: ‘Hey, there is one thing and we need the urgent reform’. Thing that did not happen and that in 3 years has happened absolutely nothing, because in November, when we warned that not only it served to get the resources for the credits of 2025, but that we needed to make an urgent reform because since there were not going to them Keep deepening the crisis and families were going to pay it. It is totally a chronicle of a death announced because we already foresaw this and today they have not taken the measures due to lack of political will, ”explained the student.
In his view, Petro’s trill “is an excuse by the president to dive good. Icetex is very bad, its model is wrong, you end up drowning young people in debts and the political responsibility they have is, for 3 years, sitting to make the reform and have not done so, so it is a simple excuse by the president ”.
