The department of Meta reaches 11 municipalities and 4 areas free of suspicion of anti-personnel mines, through the work of the humanitarian demining of Colombian National Army. In addition, 7 municipalities have already reported no damage.
The II area of the municipality of San Juan de Arama, known as the Gate to the Sierra de la Macarena, was contaminated due to the indiscriminate installation of explosive devices, whose neutralization involved the use of three techniques.
Identifying four dangerous areas, the soldiers of the 4th Humanitarian Demining Engineer Battalion used minesweeping machines, manual demining and trained dogs to clear 105,799 square meters.
"To date, 11 municipalities and 3 zones have been declared free of contamination of explosive devices in the department of Meta; today this great result is complemented by the ll zone of the municipality of San Juan de Arama, with an approximate intervention of 105,000 square meters and the destruction of two explosive devices. This way we can benefit more than 700 people in eight villages, which make up this area. It is vitally important to emphasize that this result opens the doors to the world of ecotourism and agricultural production, because this region is the Gate to the Sierra La Macarena, the nation's natural wealth," said Lieutenant Colonel Diego Reina, commander of the 4th Demining Battalion.
On the other hand, mine risk education facilitators carried out the Nata Desmina puppet strategy where they taught 125 children accompanied by their parents the risk posed by explosive devices in this area where they were identified around the classrooms; additionally, they disseminated to them the safe behaviors that they should have in the framework of humanitarian demining operations.
It is estimated that approximately 1500 inhabitants of San Juan de Arama were trained promoting a culture of self-care, identifying risk areas and danger signs.
The declaration of this zone symbolizes the union between the people and an army to provide a safe territory free of suspicion of anti-personnel mines.
Source: Press – Humanitarian Demining Brigade
