After debris and mud removal activities, soldiers of the Humanitarian Demining Engineer Battalion No.5 and inhabitants of the rural area of Baraya, Huila, reopened an important road that contacts to the capital city of the department.
Approximately 3,000 inhabitants of 10 villages had been isolated for 15 days, a reason that, although it tested their patience, encouraged the union and the effort that had the support of the mine clearance specialists to enable vehicular traffic.
Lieutenant Colonel Julián Leonardo Martínez Suárez, commander of the Humanitarian Demining Engineer Battalion No.5, narrated how it was possible to give mobility to the inhabitants “thanks to the unified operation of the National Army, the people and the productive groups of transporters, we wanted to open a landslide in the northern part of the department of Huila, which 15 days ago was blocking access to the region.”
In turn, Argemiro Munar, president of Asojuntas de Vega Larga, said: “When the communities propose there is no collapse that resists, more than 100 peasants and soldiers of the demining group and members of Cootranshuila and people in general, gathered to counter a collapse that generated the loss of the road more than 15 days ago blocking more than 10 villages in the east and north of the department. Today we say victory giving way to the vehicles that were obstructed there.”
The collapse in the Piedra Marcada sector, not only hindered the work of drivers who transported the inhabitants to the city of Neiva, but it in the same way prevented farmers from marketing their products, most of them perishable, which means significant losses that hit the economy of dozens of families residing in the area.
Source: Press – National Army
