On June 5, the Inter-American Defense Board (IADB) was represented at an Academic Conference on the peace process in Colombia, carried out in Bogotá by the Association of Defense, Military, Naval, Aeronautical and Police Attachés accredited in the country, with a lecture by the Head of the Group of Inter-American Humanitarian Demining Monitors in Colombia (GMI-CO), Captain (Brazilian Marine) Leonel Mariano da Silva Júnior, on the context of demining in Colombian territory.
The Head of the GMI-CO, the IADB mission in support of the Comprehensive Action Program against Antipersonnel Mines of the Organization of American States (AICMA-OAS), presented, in addition to the current context, relevant aspects of international support for humanitarian demining in the country. The Conference, attended by General and Superior Officers and civilian personnel of 10 nationalities, also had lectures from the OAS Peace Process Support Mission and the United Nations Verification Mission, which support the implementation of Peace Agreements In colombia.
For Argentine Army Colonel Gerardo Ramón Ángel Banegas, Defense, Military, Naval and Aeronautical Attaché of his country in Colombia and current President of the Association organizing the Conference: “This relevant activity has contributed significantly so that the Attachés can exercise efficiently their functions, but also understand the problems that Colombia has regarding the dissemination of explosive devices and mines that put the civilian population in different regions at risk and the efforts that such an honorable organization makes to protect them.”
Since 2006, the GMI-CO has supported the efforts of the OAS and Colombian authorities against antipersonnel mines and improvised explosive 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.
