19,466 young people trained without paying tuition

There was a contradiction at the heart of Colombia's military and police training system, and it lasted decades: in order to serve the country, you had to pay the country. Entering a training academy carried a tuition cost that many families simply could not meet. In practice, that meant a career in uniform was reserved for those who could afford it, and that the vocation of thousands of young people ran aground on a cash-flow problem.

Decree 1907 of 2023 removed that barrier.

The result, in figures

Between March 2025 and 30 June 2026, 19,466 young people trained without paying a single peso in tuition at military and police academies. Public investment for this came to 70,202,019,796 colombian pesos.

It is the policy in this pillar with the most direct relationship between decision and effect: a fee was eliminated, and almost twenty thousand people who previously could not enter, entered.

Why this policy and not another

The Minister himself has recounted that his family had to make an enormous effort to fund his entry into the Air Force, and that of five brothers, four served in the Military Forces — one of them lost his life defending Colombians. He has also described how, while studying for a master's degree in strategic studies in the United States alongside more than two hundred and fifty people from forty countries, explaining that in Colombia you had to pay to study at a military academy was met with disbelief.

The knock-on effect

Tuition-free training did not operate alone. Combined with the minimum-wage allowance and the increased food allocation, it produced the most measurable change in recruitment in years: the selection ratio went from one candidate per position to three, and force numbers grew again after eight years of decline.

No one chooses where they're born, but everyone chooses what to do with their life.