On November 8, 2023, the Group of Inter-American Humanitarian Demining Monitors in Colombia (GMI-CO), mission of the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) in support of the Comprehensive Action Program against Antipersonnel Mines of the Organization of American States , coordinated an institutional visit to the Bogotá office of the company MINELAB, manufacturer of metal detectors used in Colombia for humanitarian demining.
The Director of Operations and Maintenance of MINELAB in the country, Sergeant Major (Retired from the Colombian Army) Luis Carlos Peña Moreno, with 22 years of experience in maintenance and field tests with detectors, presented the technological increases developed to improve the efficiency of such equipment, in order to deliver better results in terms of location precision, detection capacity of the slightest metals, comfort and safety for the operator and less interference in mineralized terrain.
For Major Uemerson Ferreira da Silva, of the Brazilian Army, a member of the delegation, “the visit was very important to learn about the most modern demining metal detectors already available on the market and the evolution of technologies that provide better results.”
For the Head of the GMI-CO, Captain (Brazilian Marine) Leonel Mariano da Silva Júnior, “such activity contributed so that the officers currently in Colombia can bring, to the IADB and their countries of origin, knowledge about the evolution of detection techniques, especially improvised explosive devices.”
Created in 2006, the GMI-CO has represented the IADB in support of the efforts of the Colombian authorities to reduce the effects of antipersonnel mines and improvised devices, which have penalized the population of this country for six decades. Currently, the Group is made up of officers from the Brazilian Navy, Brazilian Army and Mexican Army.
