Latin America and Caribbean

December 7, 2022

The death toll from an attack against a military base in Cauca has risen to six military personnel, leaving eight wounded, including one civilian. The attack took place in the village of Munchique, where this column of FARC dissidents is known to operate. The soldiers were surprised by the throwing of grenades and improvised explosives, known ...

November 2, 2022

A state of emergency and curfews have been declared in two Ecuador provinces after a series of attacks that killed five police officers. President Guillermo Lasso said the attacks by increasingly powerful drug gangs were a declaration of wa Six explosions were reported in the western city of Guayaquil, police said, while two police officers were killed ...

October 20, 2022

Chile’s police on Thursday foiled a bomb attack in Santiago as they found an explosive device placed in the eastern side of the capital city, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said, adding that authorities have opened an investigation to find those responsible for the threat. Security forces blocked access to an area comprised of corporate buildings in ...

September 3, 2022

Seven police officers have been killed in an explosion and shooting attack in Colombia. They were leaving a social event in the south-western department of Huila when their vehicle hit a road mine. They were then shot dead in the ambush, a police spokesperson said. Images obtained by newspaper El Tiempo showed bodies strewn around a police pickup ...

August 15, 2022

Troops of the Brazilian Army’s 1st Chemical, Biological, Radiological, and Nuclear Defense Battalion (1st Btl DQBRN) participated as instructors in the Basic Course on Emergency Response to Chemical Incidents for Portuguese-speaking Countries in Angola, June 27-July 1. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) organized the course with the coordination of the National ...

August 12, 2022

WPC Shawnee Alexandra Thompson is the first female officer to be internationally qualified as a bomb technician within the TTPS and the Caribbean. Thompson says it never once crossed her mind to pursue such a daunting feat. However, she successfully navigated through a five-week programme at the Royal Canadian Mounted Police College and the Technical and Protective ...

July 30, 2022

Quick and timely actions of soldiers of Comando Específico de Norte de Santander prevented two terrorist attacks against the La Esmeralda military base, in the zona rural de Convención, and the La Esperanza military base, in El Tarra, Norte de Santander. The first incident that apparently would be carried out by members of the ELN occurred ...

July 27, 2022

In the midst of the security work in the sector, the soldiers noticed the suspicious presence of a truck that was being parked by two individuals on the road. These men, realizing the work of the troops, escaped. Soldiers of the National Army carried out the neutralization of a terrorist operation against the Military Base on ...

June 8, 2022

Andrés Pastrana Arango, former President of the Republic of Colombia and current President of the Centrist Democrat International (CDI), paid a visit to the Cambodian Mine Action Centre (CMAC)’s headquarters in Phnom Penh earlier this week. He was warmly received by Heng Ratana, Director General of CMAC and many other senior CMAC officials. The former Colombian president ...

May 24, 2022

Amid the war between Russia and Ukraine, a team of Colombian soldiers will be travelling to Europe to train Ukrainian troops on de-mining techniques. The announcement has been made by the Colombian Defence Minister Diego Molano, Sky News reported. He said that 11 military engineers of Colombo will be heading to a neighbouring country of ...

May 2, 2022

At least one person was injured by the explosion of a car bomb that destroyed the headquarters of the Mayor’s Office of the Colombian municipality of Argelia, in the department of Cauca, authorities said Monday. The attack, which took place at midnight on Sunday, also caused damage to the municipal House of Culture and the surrounding ...

April 20, 2022

At least six Colombian soldiers have been killed in a bombing in the country’s northwest, the army said, attributing the attack to accused drug traffickers who are active in the area. Another five soldiers were injured and one remains missing after the attack, which took place around midnight Tuesday in the Antioquia department and was blamed ...

March 15, 2022

The Organization of American States (OAS) and the Government of Ecuador today signed a Cooperation and Technical Assistance Agreement related to the OAS Comprehensive Action against Antipersonnel Mines Program (AICMA) to advance towards the elimination of antipersonnel mines in the country’s territory. At the signing ceremony, OAS Secretary General Luis Almagro recalled that antipersonnel mines represent ...

March 1, 2022

Colombian Army in coordination with the National Police managed to locate and destroy two cylinder-type explosive devices found fifteen meters from a house located in the San Jorge neighborhood, in the municipality of Saravena, Arauca. The EOD techs from Equipo de Explosivos y Demoliciones EXDE DELTA carried out inspection of the site with all the security ...

February 25, 2022

Brazilian football team Bahia revealed at least three of their players were injured by a homemade explosive that detonated inside the team’s bus on the way to their match on Thursday. Bahia said on Twitter that goalkeeper Danilo Fernandes is in a hospital due to shattered glass in his face. The club also confirmed left-back Matheus ...

February 19, 2022

Special squads of Mexican army troops equipped with metal detectors and bomb suits have deployed to the western state of Michoacan, where warring drug cartels have planted land mines or improvised explosive devices. The squads apparently have found dozens of such devices along rural roads and fields in the area around the township of Aguililla. The mines ...

February 14, 2022

A farmer with fields on a front line between warring drug cartels in Michoacan state was killed when his pickup truck drove over an improvised land mine, prosecutors said Monday, reporting what appears to be the first civilian death from such a weapon in western Mexico. The cartels already have used trenches, pillboxes, homemade armored cars ...

February 12, 2022

Colombian Military Engineers made progress in the decontamination of 9,728 square meters in Marquetalia Tolima that were suspected of having antipersonnel mines. The work of the soldiers of the Humanitarian Demining Engineer Battalion No. 2 continues in the region. https://twitter.com/Ingenieros_EJC/status/1492170162157596675 The municipality of El Doncello Caquetá is free from antipersonnel mines thanks to the work of the ...