As part of the arduous operation being carried out by the Colombian Navy to eliminate the threat of anti-personnel mines in the Colombian Caribbean, two municipalities now free of suspicion of these improvised explosive devices (IEDs) were presented in the departments of Sucre and Bolívar.
In Colosó, Sucre, was conducted the investigation of seven events that pointed pollution by mines in the territory through five non-technical studies, which led to the intervention on two dangerous areas, where our men cleared 4,335 square meters by using the technique of manual demining, destroying explosive devices. In the same way, the research is conducted after 64-contamination events in San Jacinto, Bolivar, to subsequently intervene two dangerous areas, which led to the clearance of 4,955 square meters of this municipality. Troops work for the safety of the 1,550 inhabitants at risk of mines and they have trained inhabitants seeking the effective recognition of these devices.
This process carried out by more than 150 men of the Humanitarian Demining Company attached to the Navy Infantry Brigade No.1 in Corozal, for four years, led to present a safe land for the inhabitants of Colosó, Sucre and San Jacinto, Bolívar. These operations are accompanied and approved by the external monitoring component of Comprehensive Action Against Anti-Personnel Mines (AICMA-CO) of the Organization of American States (OAS), in order to ensure compliance with established international standards.
The announcement of this important achievement was made in a ceremony presided by Juan Camilo Restrepo Gómez, High Commissioner for Peace, on behalf of the President of the Republic of Colombia, Iván Duque Márquez, and the admiral Gabriel Alfonso Perez Garces, Commander of the Navy of Colombia, who made the official presentation of the municipalities of Colosó, and San Jacinto, in the department of Sucre and Bolivar as Free of Suspicion of Contamination by anti-personnel Mines.
From 2011 to date, the Institution Naval Institution has steadily worked and works to liberate the communities of this danger, and it consolidated up to the date 14 municipalities as Free of Suspicion for Contamination of anti-personnel Mines in the Montes de Maria including 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. It has in the same way made permanent follow-up and care of the residual risk in these municipalities, conducting mine risk awareness with the people, through informative talks so that it was possible to identify and inform the Navy troops in the area in a timely manner.
Source: Press - Navy of Colombia
