Policy

The Republic of Colombia signed the Mine Ban Treaty on 3 December 1997 and ratified it on 6 September 2000. Colombia became a State Party on 1 March 2001.

Law 759 took effect on 25 July 2002 and serves as Colombia’s national implementing legislation for the Mine Ban Treaty.[1] Colombia reports that activities prohibited by the treaty are criminalized under its Penal Code.[2] Colombia has also enacted laws on victim assistance, land restitution, and mine clearance.[3]

Colombia has submitted twenty-one Article 7 transparency reports since 2002, with its most recent report provided on 23 May 2022.[4]

Colombia has participated in every meeting of the Mine Ban Treaty, and hosted its Second Review Conference in Cartagena in November–December 2009.[5] Most recently, it attended the Nineteenth Meeting of States Parties held virtually in November 2021, and the intersessional meetings held in Geneva in June 2022.

Colombia has made significant contributions to the Mine Ban Treaty at the highest levels, and is serving as President of the Twentieth Meeting of States Parties in November 2022.[6]

Colombia is party to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and its Amended Protocol II on landmines, and Protocol V on explosive remnants of war (ERW). Colombia is also party to the Convention on Cluster Munitions.

Production, transfer, stockpiling

Colombia’s State Military Industry (Industria Militar, INDUMIL) ended production of antipersonnel landmines in September 1998, and destroyed its production equipment on 18 November 1999.[7]

The government of Colombia is not known to have ever exported antipersonnel mines.

Colombia completed the destruction of its stockpile of 18,531 antipersonnel mines on 24 October 2004.[8]

Colombia no longer retains any mines for training purposes. In 2014, Colombia reported that it had destroyed its previously retained 586 MAP-1 mines.[9]

Use

There is no evidence that Colombian government forces have used antipersonnel mines since the Mine Ban Treaty’s adoption.

Use by non-state armed groups

Colombia has detailed at least 12 different types of mines produced by non-state armed groups (NSAGs), including antipersonnel, antivehicle, and Claymore-type directional fragmentation mines, some fitted with antihandling devices.[10] Its Article 7 report submitted in 2022 reiterated that antipersonnel landmines are made and used both by organized armed groups, and by criminal enterprises involved in the manufacture of narcotics and in illegal mineral extraction.[11]

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia-People's Army (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia-Ejército del Pueblo, FARC-EP or FARC), National Liberation Army (Unión Camilista-Ejército de Liberación Nacional, ELN), Popular Liberation Army (El Ejército Popular de Liberación, EPL), and other NSAGs continue to produce and use antipersonnel landmines.

The Colombian government’s Office of the High Commissioner for Peace attributed responsibility for 216 antipersonnel mine events from January–December 2021 to residual or dissident FARC forces, with another 77 events attributed to the ELN. In the same period, 20 events were attributed to other armed groups, while 54 events occurred where the responsible group was unknown. In total, 367 new mine events were reported in Colombia during 2021.

There were numerous additional reports up to mid-2022 of military and civilian casualties caused by landmines in Antioquia, Bolivar, Cauca, Chocó, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, and Valle del Cauca. These are all areas where armed conflict was ongoing between the National Army of Colombia and NSAGs. It is difficult to determine precisely when these mines were laid.[12]

From January–July 2022, the Office of the High Commissioner for Peace registered 232 landmine events involving new use. It attributed 58 incidents to the ELN, 139 to FARC, and 14 to other actors, while stating that responsibility could not be determined for the remaining 21 events.[13]

New antipersonnel mine contamination was reported in Balboa municipality, in Cauca department, in July–August 2022, following fighting between FARC and another armed group. The area had previously been cleared of mines by CCCM.[14]

In September 2021, seven communities in Dabeiba, in Antioquia department, reported ongoing antipersonnel landmine use amid fighting between the ELN and Autodefensas Gaitanistas (AGC), confining 1,200 people and denying access to farmland.[15] Mines were also reportedly used during conflict between the ELN and AGC in Medio San Juan, in Chocó department, in January 2022.[16] Landmine injuries were reported during armed conflict between AGC and ELN in Cúcuta, in Norte de Santander department, in January 2022.[17]

Between late 2021 and mid-2022, numerous media reports detailed new mine use and seizures of improvised mines. Colombia’s military discovered a cache of 1,984 improvised mines in Puerto Concordia, in Meta department, in May 2022.[18] A cache of FARC mines was also discovered in Meta department in September 2021, while it was also reported that FARC rebels had emplaced improvised mines in trees.[19]

The government of Colombia signed a final peace agreement with FARC on 24 November 2016, which commits both parties to end the conflict and build peace, including via landmine clearance.[20] Yet in 2019, some FARC dissidents abandoned the peace agreement and resumed armed activities against the government.[21] More recently, former FARC fighters have reportedly begun providing information on areas mined during the armed conflict to the Colombian authorities, under the framework of the 2016 peace agreement.[22]

CCCM uses radio messages, face-to-face workshops on risk prevention, and written materials in its work to provide warnings about the threat posed by landmines, and urges NSAGs to stop using them.[23] In August 2021, a CCCM clearance team working in Puerto Leguizamo municipality, in Putumayo department, was approached by a dissident FARC group who told deminers that they would not interfere with demining activities, but would not stop using antipersonnel mines.[24]