From November 12 to 15, within the framework of the technical orientation visit to the Inter-American Monitors Group (GMI-CO) and the Inter-American Technical Advisory Group (GATI), in Bogotá, the Director General of the Inter-American Defense Board, Brigadier Flávio Luiz de Oliveira Pinto, maintained an important work agenda with some of the main Colombian military authorities.
The main objective of the activity was to strengthen the traditional ties of professionalism and friendship that unite the IADB and the Colombian Armed Forces, particularly in aspects related to the support provided in Humanitarian Demining, but also considering the various topics developed by the Board in favor of capacity building and the promotion of hemispheric confidence and security, in areas such as cyber defense, cooperation in cases of disaster, maritime security, arms management, environmental protection, migratory flows and human rights and international humanitarian law, among others.
On that occasion, the Medal of the Inter-American Defense Board was also awarded to the flag of the Command of the Military Forces of Colombia.
The main authorities visited were Major General Hugo Alejandro López Barreto, Chief of the Joint Staff of the Military Forces; Major General of the Marine Infantry Guillermo Arturo Castellanos Ojeda, Inspector General of the Military Forces; and Brigadier General Ricardo Heriberto Roque Salcedo, of the Army Engineering Command.
The IADB's humanitarian demining work in Latin America
The IADB has supported humanitarian demining in Latin America since 1993, with military personnel from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Trinidad-Tobago, Venezuela and Uruguay.
This support, always in conjunction with OAS programs, began with the Mission for Assistance in Demining in Central America, which operated from 1993 to 2010 in Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua, in addition to providing technical advice to Suriname. From 2002 to 2013, the South American Mission for Assistance in Demining operated in Ecuador and Peru.
In Colombia, the IADB has been operating since 2006 with the Inter-American Monitors Group and since 2015 with the Inter-American Technical Advisors Group. The IADB's contribution is part of the effort developed by various institutions working for humanitarian demining in Colombia, led by the AICMA/OAS and the Colombian Armed Forces. The results achieved represent a strong incentive for those dedicated to this difficult but essential humanitarian activity: between 2006 and 2023, the annual number of victims caused by landmines, including deaths and injuries, fell from 1,224 to 95, while Colombia dropped from second place in the ranking of countries with the most landmines in the world, moving to ninth place. During this period, more than 30,000 mines were neutralized and the surface area freed from this terrible scourge reached the mark of more than 14 million square meters (equivalent to 1,700 football fields). The proportion of Colombian municipalities free of mines practically doubled, reaching 83% of the total.
