Ejercito Nacional de Colombia

Before representatives of 156 countries participating since Sunday, November 29 at the Cartagena Summit "For a world free from antipersonnel mines", Santos indicated that this encounter "represents an opportunity for Colombia so that the international community becomes more aware of our reality, and for us to delve deeper into the knowledge of best practices carried out by other countries in the execution of tasks related to the Convention".

"I am bringing forth the voice of thousands of Colombian homes who have suffered violence and on their behalf I ask you to join forces against illegally armed groups so that they do not continue planting land mines at present more in the future in our country. No more landmines. No more violence against our population," expressed the Vice President.

He also pointed out that "illegally armed groups are using new techniques for manufacturing landmines, which worsens the complex problem Colombia faces in this regard, due to the fact that it makes detection and clean up a lot more difficult."

Likewise, he stated that Colombia reports 8081 cases of people dying because of antipersonnel mines since 1990 and 6285 survivors with some type of physical disability.

It is worthwhile to note that illegally armed groups started the indiscriminate use of these anti-personnel mines to hamper the persecution of the Armed Forces and to protect their strategic drug corridors and crops, owned by them.