The control of this illegal activity would be in charge of the residual Organized Armed Group, GAO-r Structure Acacio Medina.
In the frame of an operation against illegal mining, in a tactical river move carried out by troops of the Twenty-Eighth Brigade, with support of the Command Against drug Trafficking and Transnational Threats of the National Army, together with the National Navy, the Colombian Air Force, in coordination with the National Police and inter agency with the office of the Prosecutor General of the Nation, was found a rudimentary ship type dredger valued at over one hundred million pesos.
This operation was possible thanks to the complaints posed by the civilians, which indicate the serious environmental damage that was being caused in more than one hectare, which would take between 20 to 30 years to recover ecologically. Immediately, and thanks to the aerial reconnaissance, the troops came up to the community of Puerto Payara, on the mirror of water of the Inírida river, in the department of Guainía where troops found four units of mining production, but only one could be destroyed in controlled conditions, because people apparently living in the sector used children and pregnant women as human shields; in the same way individuals that would be members of the Guardia indígena so hostile and threatening prevented the operation.
The National Army convened an extraordinary security council with the civilian authorities of the department to denounce this action that attacks human rights.
The illegal exploitation of gold is one of the greatest dangers for natural resources and biodiversity. Mercury, the metal used to separate the gold particles of the rock, poisons rivers, soils, animals and plants; in addition, it endangers the health of the riverside inhabitants.
Source: press-National Army
