The devices, intended to attack local communities and the Military Forces, were destroyed in controlled conditions thanks to a military operation carried out in the region.
Within the framework of the Ayacucho Plus Campaign Plan and as part of the sustained operations to protect the inhabitants and neutralize terrorist threats, troops of the Twelfth Brigade, unit a of the Sixth Division of Colombian National Army, found and destroyed two illegal hiding places with 59 improvised explosive devices (IEDs), in the rural area of the village of Santana Ramos, veredas La Victoria and La Herradura, in the municipality of Puerto Rico, Caquetá.
The material, allegedly belonging to the Iván Díaz Structure, of the Jorge Suárez Briceño Bloc — a dissident faction of the residual Calarcá organized armed group — was discovered during search operations and military area control, aimed at dismantling the logistical and offensive means of said criminal structures.
The devices, of high destructive power, contained 300 grams of pentolite each and were equipped with different activation mechanisms, some by control cable and others by pressure and tension systems, with syringes adapted as activators. The mines, carefully camouflaged in a wooded area that is difficult to access, posed a high risk to both the soldiers and the peasants who live and work in the sector.
This result was possible thanks to the coordinated work of military intelligence, which led to direct the tactical maneuvers of the troops and the precise intervention of the EXDE group (anti-explosive specialists of the Special Energy and Road Battalion No. 19), who executed the controlled destruction of the material, without causing damages to houses or the ecosystem.
Beyond the result of the military operation, this operation represents an act of direct protection for rural children, the most exposed and made invisible by the conflict. On these hamlets, children travel several kilometers daily, by trails, open terrains, streams and rural roads, to get to their schools. Many of these routes cross wooded areas, plantations and improvised passages where these explosive devices have been hidden with absolute disregard for human life.
Every destroyed device is a tragedy averted. It is another step towards an environment where children can go to study without fear, without their families living with the anguish of not knowing if they will return home safe and sound. These children, who dream of becoming doctors, teachers or farmers, deserve a territory free of fear, where their daily journey is not a route of risk, but of hope.
These operations in the same way protect the lives of mothers, fathers, farmers and teachers who accompany children or travel to work their lands and support their communities. That is why every military operation that finds and destroys an AEI not only weakens the enemy, but in the same way restores tranquility to families and affirms the right of children to grow up in peace.
Through this operation, it was possible to make significant progress in fulfilling the second strategic objective of the Ayacucho Plus Plan: weaken the threat's resources, damaging the logistics chain of illegal armed structures and preventing their use against the inhabitants, critical construction and troops in operation.
So far this year, the Twelfth Brigade has managed to find and destroy 84 improvised explosive devices in the department of Caquetá, especially in the rural areas of the municipality of Puerto Rico, protecting peasant communities, productive groups, social leaders, communal boards and, above all, the girls and boys who represent the future of the country.
The use of this type of explosive devices is classified as a crime in the Colombian Penal Code; it in the same way constitutes a violation of international humanitarian law, as they are used as indiscriminate methods that put the inhabitants in serious danger.
Every military operation carried out by the Twelfth Brigade, of the Sixth Division, is in the same way an operation in favor of children's rights, rural education and peasant life, fundamental to building a safer department of Caquetá.
Source: Press – National Army
