A total of 27 former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) traveled to Cuba on Sunday to begin their studies at the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).
The 27 ex-combatants arrived on the island, where they will join the classes together with other Colombians who are already in more advanced levels of their degree.
According to information from Latin Pressthe group was fired by Rodrigo Londoño, president of the Partido Comunes, founded by former members of the Colombian guerrilla.
The students traveled to Havana as part of a scholarship program for 1,000 young Colombians to study in Cuba, under the 2016 Peace Agreement between the former FARC guerrilla and the Colombian government, chaired by Juan Manuel Santos.
The Cuban government, which served as the venue for the negotiations, offered a thousand places in ELAM, evenly distributed among young demobilized from the FARC-EP and displaced and affected by the internal armed conflict.
The scholarships would begin in the 2017-2018 academic year, at the rate of 200 per year for five years: 100 for former guerrillas and 100 for civilians chosen by the Colombian government.
In 2016, after the entry into force of the Peace Agreement that put an end to the armed confrontation in Colombia, Cuba made its offer to grant scholarships to study Medicine, to contribute to the end of hostilities in the Andean country.
The definitive ceasefire between the two parties, signed in Havana, ended a warlike conflict that lasted more than 50 years and caused nearly 220,000 deaths and 6.9 million displaced persons.
The talks lasted for several years on the island, which was one of the guarantors of the peace process, along with Norway.
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