The inauguration of the “Gentil Duarte” boarding school is scheduled for April 12 and 13 in an area of the Caquetá region controlled by dissidents of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

172 kilometers from San Vicente del Caguán, in a region of south-western Colombia under the absolute control of Iván Mordisco’s FARC-EP (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia — People’s Army), the doors of the “Gentil Duarte” boarding school will soon open.
Pseudonym of Miguel Botache Santillana, Gentil Duarte was one of Colombia’s most wanted criminals and the main leader of the dissident Revolutionary Armed Forces. He died on May 31, 2022, in a border area near Venezuela.
“He was a great person”
Salud Hernández-Mora, a journalist for the Colombian daily Semana, visited the site to question the community about this controversial name choice.
“Our comrade was from this region and he helped a lot of people. He was a great person,” retorts a resident who identifies as a member of the dissident group. “This educational facility should have been built by the government and not by the communities, but they are doing nothing,” he declares, “the boarding school is urgently needed in this very remote area.”
Indeed, the local people explain that they financed the school with the money from tolls and taxes paid by ranchers and agricultural landowners as contributions to the community action committee, which, among other things, keeps the roads in perfect condition.
Officially, however, it is not known who financed these works or why the community allowed to name it “Gentil Duarte.” These questions have led various political players to believe that the project may have been supported by dissidents.
A few days after publicly supporting the movement and releasing a video inviting people to attend the school’s inauguration, the mayor of San Vicente de Caguán had a change of heart. Indeed, Luis Trujillo said he was unaware that the institution was named after the former guerrilla commander, and that he was willing to discuss the matter with communities to propose an alternative. “I was surprised by the video indicating that the boarding school will be named after a guerrilla leader. If this is to work legally, the school cannot be sympathetic to crime”, he explained.
The Colombian government, for its part, has denied the viability of the infrastructure, mainly because its financing is unclear. The Defender of Rights, Carlos Camargo, demanded transparency regarding the origin of the school’s name and the resources used to build it. In addition, he called for clear parameters to be established before considering its opening. “We categorically reject the celebration of members of illegal armed groups, who have committed serious human rights violations. Guerrilla actors continue to violate the rights of children and adolescents systematically,” said Camargo.
Claims of attacks
What will happen to the boarding school? No one knows, because without national recognition, no teachers can be sent there. And even if the communities hire private teachers from primary to high school, the children won’t be able to join the official academic system at the end of their course.
In 2016, Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) fighters officially demobilized, marking the end of a 53-year conflict with the Colombian government. More than 10,000 FARC members surrendered their weapons in a process verified by a United Nations mission in the country.
Nevertheless, some FARC fighters have rejected the peace process. A myriad of armed groups, often referred to as “FARC dissident groups,” have emerged.
In recent years, these groups have claimed responsibility for a bomb attack on a military base, as well as a shooting attack on a helicopter carrying former Colombian president Iván Duque.