Colombia restricts import of drones used in explosives attacks / Photo: © AFP/File
Colombia restricts import of drones used in explosives attacks
Colombia has restricted the importation of drones, whose increased use by guerrilla groups in a decades-old conflict killed 20 people last year and wounded nearly 300, the government said Thursday.
Guerrillas fighting the state, as well as rival rebel and drug trafficking groups, have taken to fixing explosives to commercial drones and targeting soldiers and civilians alike.
They drop the explosives on targets with little precision but terrifying effect.
Last year, there were 8,000 such attacks, according to Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez.
On Thursday, his office said a government decree has taken effect to "restrict the import of drones via postal traffic and express shipments, due to the high risk they pose to national security and defense."
The new measures stipulate that drones may only enter through customs points at Bogota's international airport and the northern seaport of Cartagena.
The country has several other sea and airports.
Over a quarter of a million people have been killed during six decades of armed conflict between left-wing guerrillas, drug traffickers, paramilitaries, and the military in Colombia.
The violence decreased dramatically after the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), the country's biggest rebel group, agreed to lay down arms in 2016.
But FARC dissidents opposed to the peace deal continue to fight other groups for control of Colombia's lucrative cocaine trade and to carry out attacks on the security forces.
Colombia is the world's largest producer of cocaine.
The Colombian military believes the ELN and other guerrilla groups received training to use drones in explosives attacks from foreign armed entities.
In October, the South American country unveiled its first drone battalion to counterattack and defend against drone onslaughts.
President Gustavo Petro, who has not achieved his stated goal for a negotiated "total peace" in Colombia, has called for a multi-billion peso investment in drone defense systems.
(N.Loginovsky--DTZ)
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