"La más eficaz, la más rápida y también la más económica”. La colonia escolar de vacaciones como proyecto estatal modelo para el desarrollo rural en Colombia durante la República Liberal

In this article we analyze in detail the conception and daily operation of the School Vacation Camp Program in Colombia. This was a state project initiated in 1937 during the so-called Liberal Republic (1930-1946) and has generally been analyzed as an example of medicalization of school education. Here, we propose a different approach that aims to frame this project in a broader process of rural development and food intervention. We show that this project aimed at transforming a series of communal agricultural, food and health practices of young farmers in order to raise their standard of living, foster a cooperative spirit of production and boost the country's economy. At the same time, an analysis of their daily actions shows us the contingencies and the fractured nature of the functioning of the State and its relations with experts to structure social intervention strategies. With this, we wish to contribute to the literature that has recently questioned the conformation of the “developmental States” in Latin America and their connections and influences on the international development projects of the so-called Global North.