Kevin Santiago Ángel Garzón believed a soccer field could do what police often couldn’t: pull young people away from drugs. The 31-year-old, born and raised in Bogotá, taught technology, robotics and computer science at the Santiago de las Atalayas school in the Bosa neighborhood, where colleagues remember him less for his teaching skills than for his character. “He was a great human being,” one coworker said.
But Ángel’s mission didn’t end when the school day did. Outside the classroom, he organized soccer and other sports activities for at-risk youth, particularly members of Bogotá soccer fan clubs known as “barras.” He kept close ties with Comandos Azules, an organized supporters’ group for the Millonarios soccer club, often bringing young men to Bellavista Park to play rather than fall into drug use or gang life. He wasn’t a police officer or a social worker — just a teacher who chose to spend his own time offering kids another path.
That closeness explains why his killing hit so hard beyond school walls. When news broke that Ángel had been murdered, Comandos Azules publicly mourned him as an active member of their group, demanding that authorities find those responsible and “not let this become just another statistic.”
To save for a master’s degree, Ángel drove for ride-hailing apps like Uber and DiDi after school, some nights working until late. To read the full story, visit El Tiempo.
Source: Kevin Ángel, el profesor que enseñaba tecnología y quería alejar a los jóvenes de las drogas a través del deporte (eltiempo.com). English version produced with AI assistance.
Image: kozumel, BY-ND 2.0 (via Openverse).