Tolima. Coyaima, Mariquita, Villarica and Prado are municipalities to the east of the department of Tolima. They were declared free of suspicion of antipersonnel mines.
The liberated areas are part of the 37 municipalities that were presented free of suspicion of antipersonnel mines, however, today more than 98,000 inhabitants receive their lands.
91,214 square meters were intervened by the Non-Technical Studies Team of the Humanitarian Demining Engineers Battalion No. 2, managing to free them of the suspicion of deadly traps, with the support of the community.
During eight months of work, the soldiers found and destroyed six ammunition without exploding.
To Lieutenant Colonel Fabián Aristizabal, commander of the Humanitarian Demining Battalion No. 2, the work was possible thanks to the unconditional participation of local governments, and he added: "We can today, thanks to that effort and research, declare those territories free of pollution and give these populations the benefit of recovering the rights that once were violated, the right to life, to the mobility and the use of their lands. "
The security of humanitarian demining carried out in the department is guaranteed by troops of the Sixth Brigade attached to the Fifth Army Division.
Source: National Army
