Culiacán, Sinaloa: School Opened by Chapo Guzman’s Children Closes

  "Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

School enabled by children of 'El Chapo' Guzmán in Sinaloa closes its doors

The school closed its doors because the teachers could not afford the expenses for the purchase of educational material. Along with the internet bill so that the children could take their classes online.

The improvised school built in the poorest neighborhood of Culiacán, opened as a study center so that children who did not have access to a smart tablet, much less the Internet, could take their virtual classes due to the pandemic, but today it finally closed its doors and it’s unknown how long it will be before it opens again.

Esmeralda Quiñonez, who has been in charge of the center, recalled that initially it was the children of the former leader of the Sinaloa cartel who financially supported the educational project, however, after the opening of the school was made public, the Secretary of Public Education, Juan Alfonso Mejía López, promised to provide the campus with tools, help that never came.

“It’s practically closed now, because it doesn’t have the basics, which is ink, writing paper, toilet paper, all those things it no longer has. The children of Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán only supported us the first two months, some people arrived who gave an amount of 2,000 a week. With that they paid for everything they needed for food, they paid for the Internet and whatever the water bill came out to, "he said.

Today the dream is on hold and the more than 100 children who are mostly the children of peasants and don’t have a cell phone, much less have access to the Internet, will stop receiving classes and thus could miss the school year.

“It is the poorest neighborhood, it has sheet metal houses, it has a lot of displaced people, a lot of displaced people who come, right now even the displaced from Tepuche have wanted to get there. It has many displaced people who take refuge in that colony, since it is a municipal land. There they make their home, there they make their little hut, because they are people who lost everything, who live from day to day ”.

The school opened its doors seven months ago and in recent days, it had been receiving support from the Food Bank, which provided the campus with breakfasts. Most parents sent their children without food due to the extreme poverty in which they find themselves.

The teacher went today to the Government Palace where she, accompanied by some students, posted cards and a sign with the legend "The Bicentennial School", so that some authority could receive it, but she was ignored.

“This is something that the governor should care about, he should have empathy, he should be supportive. Because many people approached to help and the governor never approached us. What response will he give, or the secretary of education, after promising something to the children and then not giving it to them. That’s just like promising food to a hungry person ”.

Today after struggling and requesting support from everyone when they could, the dream for these little ones ended. Despite the fact that the Sinaloa government sought to incorporate it into the state educational system, the help never came.

Milenio