Army destroyed explosives depot allegedly belonging to FARC dissidents in Norte de Santander

In the village of La Angalia in the municipality of Tibú, uniformed members of the National Army revealed that they destroyed an explosives deposit, allegedly owned by the 33rd Front of the FARC dissidents.

The soldiers were carrying out coca eradication actions in the rural area of the department of Norte de Santander when they detected the explosive ordnance, 180 anti-personnel mines that were in unnoticeable places.

Regarding this, the commander of the Norte de Santander Specific Command, General Fabio Caro said: “It should be noted that our specialist men from the EXDE explosives and demolitions group achieved the controlled destruction of this important illegal depot with anti-personnel mines, which would be used by members of the organization criminal Gaor-e33, to indiscriminately affect our men and the civilian population that daily transit the tertiary roads of this region”.

The explosives were to be used to fuel the violence suffered by border departments. So far this year alone in Norte de Santander the authorities have deactivated 1,200 explosive devices.

There have been several damages to the Public Forces, civilians and physical structures by these explosive devices and the military actions of these residual organized armed groups.

It should be noted that the national territory is one of the most affected by these terrorist actions. The Directorate of Assistance to Victims noted, on its institutional page, that: “Colombia has been one of the countries in the world with the highest number of victims of the security forces and this has meant that of the total number of victims, 60% have been members of the security forces and the remaining 40% correspond to civilians”.

The authorities stated that the public forces will continue to provide constant accompaniment in border municipalities to control the violent actions of illegal groups that dispute territorial control in these areas.

According to information provided by the Attorney General's Office on April 23, the perpetrators of homicides committed in Ocaña and Ituango were sent to prison.

“In view of the arguments presented by the Prosecutor's Office, a criminal circuit judge sentenced Anderson Jair Quintero Quintana, alias El Abuelo or Mayron, to 18 years and five months in prison for the crime of six people, in events that occurred in 2014, 2019 and 2020, in Ocaña and Sardinata (Norte de Santander),” said the prosecutor.

According to the Attorney General's Office, the fatal victim was social leader María del Carmen Flórez, who was mobilizing on a motorcycle when she was attacked by armed men, among whom she was alias 'El Abuelo'.

On the other hand, Alexander López alias 'El Zarco', a member of the organized armed group El Clan del Golfo, was sentenced to 16 years in prison and nine months for the murder of a person in Ituango. “A member of a structure of the 'Gulf Clan', he was declared responsible for the murder of social leader Fernando José Oquendo Jaramillo, on July 6, 2018, in the El Torrente village of Ituango (Antioquia),” the prosecutor said in a statement.

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