They found a grenade for military use on the border of Ecuador and Colombia

In the province of Esmeraldas, on Ecuador's northern border, members of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces located a 60-millimeter mortar shell for military use in the Mataje area, a community known as an area that sometimes serves as a shield for dissident groups.

Operational Group 1.4 Esmeraldas, through the BIMOT - 13 Motorized Infantry Battalion, found the explosive device abandoned during reconnaissance and security operations on the international political boundary. These patrols are part of the operations carried out by the personnel of the Armed Forces, through their ground force.

According to the authorities, the grenade had been abandoned in the sector by irregular groups. This would have happened when they became aware of the presence of the members of the Armed Forces. According to military information, a 60-millimeter mortar shell is considered a high-explosive projectile that can neutralize an area of 200 meters. The explosive device for military use was transferred to the 11th San Lorenzo Marine Infantry Battalion. The military notified the National Police of the finding, who must destroy it.

In the same province, the Anti-Narcotics Police seized 12,440 grams of marijuana. The drug was packed in brick-like packages that were camouflaged with fish in a thermal box with ice. The illicit substance was found in the hold of a passenger bus on the San Lorenzo-Ibarra route.

Ecuador's northern border, the shield of dissidents

Esmeraldas is the border area known for its state abandonment and for the constant fear that its inhabitants have of dissidents who belong to armed groups that control the place. Ecuador's northern border, on the Esmeraldas side, also became news when in 2018, in Mataje, the newspaper team of El Comercio was kidnapped, who were killed after being held in captivity by members of the irregular group Oliver Sinisterra.

Mataje is a rural parish in the San Lorenzo canton of the province of Esmeraldas, which sits on the left bank of the river that has the same name, on the border with Colombia. Mataje is the northwesternmost town in Ecuador. According to the Encyclopedia platform of Ecuador, Mataje began to train with inhabitants of the neighboring country in 1952.

In January of this year, the Armed Forces located a camp of FARC dissidents near the border with Colombia, believed to have been the base of the Oliver Sinisterra group.

The FARC dissident group, known as Oliver Sinisterra, is the armed movement with the greatest access to drug trafficking resources and operates in the department of Nariño, southwestern Colombia, on the border between that country and Ecuador and a six-hour drive between Nariño and San Lorenzo, the canton where Mataje is located.

Conflict expert Kyle Johnson has explained to the media that the Oliver Sinisterra Front was formed with guerrillas who did not believe in the peace process and wanted to stay in arms. Dissidents began to take control of border populations and with them they also seized the routes where cocaine moves. A report by the Ideas for Peace Foundation described, in 2018, Oliver Sinisterra as a group “that is fully involved in drug trafficking, has large militia networks and a high capacity to commit low-effort but high-impact actions.”

That was not the first time that members of the Ecuadorian Armed Forces reported the discovery of these illegal camps. In September 2021, Ecuadorian Army personnel found a clandestine rest base for an illegal armed group in a jungle area near the border with Colombia.

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