32 extra kilos in his body, the heart in his hand and prayers to God is what the soldiers of the Marte Group carry with them when facing enemies of life, known as improvised explosive devices and anti-personnel mines.
Only a tough and self-confident man is able to face the fear and adrenaline of being in front of an explosive device that was planted to destroy life without discrimination.
Sergeant Diego Fernando Rodriguez, is one of the 10 soldiers that is part of the group of explosive ordnance, MARTE, of the Fourth Division of the National Army, serving as a technical lead, along with his companions, and the two heroes on four legs who are prepared and trained to clear improvised explosive devices and anti-personnel mines in the area of operations of the departments of Meta, Guaviare and Vaup茅s.
Behind the rudeness of the soldier is a man who is a son, brother, husband and father. He becomes part of a family that one day was surprised by this enemy, silent and lethal, causing injury to a brother of the sergeant Rodriguez, when he was in military operations in the south of Tolima, becoming one of the 7,984 victims of this problem, reason for this non-commissioned officer of the Army to become a man of explosives.
It has been 19 years since Sergeant Rodr铆guez traveled to various places in the country at the service of the Colombians and their own Lanzas (colleagues), which threatens with these destructive and terror-generating handcrafted weapons, not only the members of the Military Forces, but in the same way children and peasants who have fallen into minefields.
Since 2021 to date, the operation of the MARTE explosions and demolitions group has saved more than 150 lives in the Colombian southeast, by finding and destroying in controlled way 100 anti-personnel mines, 28 improvised explosive devices and 12 abandoned ammunition.
Today, on the International Anti-Personnel Mine Awareness Day, we remember the 1,698 victims of anti-personnel mines who lost their lives and those who have been hit by these explosive devices.
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