In non-technical studies work by the Humanitarian Demining Engineer Battalion No.7, seven reservations, five indigenous settlements and the urban area of the municipality of Barrancas, Department of La Guajira, were declared as territories free of suspicion of anti-personnel mines.
During eight months members of the Military Forces investigated 14 events that reported the threat of explosive devices. Therefore, the inquiries with the inhabitants and community liaison meetings with the local authorities, led to decontaminating the municipality, as follows: The indigenous reservations such as Tamaquito Li, el Zahino Guayabito Muriaytuy, San Francisco, Provincial, Trupiogacho and La Meseta, Nuevo Espinal and Cerrodeo, the San Pedro villages comprise the Cerrito indigenous settlements, Sitio Nuevo; the Carretalito village of the Barranco and Alegre settlements. The Guayacanal village comprising the settlements Nueva Esperanza and La Granja. The Regional Districts of Composite Management (DRMI) the Serranía de Perijá, Banaderos the high basin del Río and Camarones, the River Protective Forest Reserve (RFPR) Montes de Oca and the urban area of Barrancas.
More than 8,000 barranqueros (inhabitants of Barranca) benefited with the declaration of Barrancas, Department of La Guajira, free of suspicion of anti-personnel mines. Vicente Berardinelli Carrillo, mayor of Barrancas, points out: "This will undoubtedly attract confidence for the rural sector, but especially for the peasants, because it will boost tourism, and especially the confidence of us the barranqueros, because we all live in a municipality free of anti-personnel mines and it is a territory of peace."
For his part, Colonel Carlos Tarazona Ocacion, commander of the Humanitarian Demining Engineer Brigade, said: "I am grateful for the coordination with the local authorities, the president of communal action board and all those who intervened in the process to happily arrive today in Barrancas as free of suspicion of mines. This declaration of this municipality will strengthen tourism and sports and also will improve the economy of the region because it enables and leads to new institutional services that can reach the territory to benefit all the inhabitants."
It is worth mentioning that in the Department of La Guajira the humanitarian demining of Colombian National Army has presented seven municipalities free of suspicion of anti-personnel mines and only two municipalities, Villanueva and La Jagua del Pilar, are to decontaminate to complete the entire department.
Source: Press - Humanitarian Demining Brigade
