The Colombian Navy has consolidated 14 municipalities as Free of Suspicion for Contamination of Anti-Personnel Mines in the Montes de María.
The Colombian Navy, through its units in the Montes de María region, is carrying out Humanitarian Demining tasks in El Carmen de Bolívar and María La Baja, in order to present these two municipalities of the department of Bolívar free of suspected mines during the year 2022.
Since 2011, troops of the Humanitarian Demining Company, attached to the Navy Infantry Brigade No.1, arrived in the Montes de María with the firm purpose of decontaminating the 15 municipalities of the department of Bolívar and Sucre, which make up this subregion, eliminating the suspicion of anti-personnel mines that the armed conflict left in this area of the Colombian Caribbean.
In the same way, the inter-agency Humanitarian Demining, which is composed of the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace, the Ministry of National Defense and the General Inspectorate of the Military Forces, appointed under the responsibility of the Navy of Colombia, in the Naval Force of the Caribbean 10 municipalities of the department of Bolívar: Cartagena, Córdoba, El Carmen de Bolivar El Guamo, Maria La Baja, San Jacinto, San Juan Nepomuceno, Santa Rosa de Lima, Villanueva, and Zambrano and nine municipalities in the department of Sucre: Chalán, Colosó, Corozal, Galeras, Los Palmitos, Morroa, Ovejas, San Onofre and Sincelejo, to carry out the arduous operation to free these communities of the danger of anti-personnel mines.
For this reason, the Amphibious Engineers Demining Battalion has reported carrying out demining in the municipalities of Cartagena, Chalán, Colosó, Corozal, El Guamo, Los Palmitos, Morroa, Ovejas, San Jacinto, San Juan Nepomuceno, San Onofre, Santa Rosa De Lima, Sincelejo and Villanueva, being declared Free of Suspicion for Contamination of Anti-Personnel Mines.
The Naval Institution continues to work with the permanent monitoring and assistance in these municipalities, making people aware of the risk of mines, through informative talks so that they learn to identify an explosive device and how to inform the Navy troops.
It is important to mention that the Humanitarian Demining Company has received technical support of the Organization of American States – OAS, in terms of monitoring, quality control of Humanitarian Demining operations that are carried out in Colombia and the support of the maintenance of specialized equipment which leads to effectively carry out the tasks in the municipalities under protection of the Colombian Navy. In this way, during the recent visit of a delegation of the High Commissioner for Peace, the review of the procedures conducted in the areas of work of the Humanitarian Demining Company in coordination with the civilians was carried out.
With this type of operations, the Colombian Navy is making significant progress in the humanitarian demining process, in order to make the Montes de María subregion an area free of suspected explosive devices, leading communities to return to their territories, generating prosperity and social and economic development in the country.
Source: Press - Navy of Colombia
