A form of warfare that was believed to be far removed from Colombia’s capital now appears to be reaching the city. This Thursday, the National Police reported the discovery of a drone loaded with explosives less than six kilometers from El Dorado Airport and the Military Air Transport Command of the Colombian Aerospace Force (CATAM).
According to the initial reports, the drone had a fiber-optic spool, widely used by illegal armed groups to evade signal jammers that can disable these devices, with which they have been gaining a strategic advantage.
Authorities have indicated, according to the news outlet Red+ Noticias, that everything began with a notification from the Prosecutor’s Office in Popayan, which informed authorities in Bogota. The device also had attached plastic tubing and wiring.
Among the items found there were also 258 grams of C-4 explosive inside a PVC tube with a syringe detonator and the drone’s battery, the same outlet added.
In recent weeks, incidents have occurred at El Dorado Airport due to the presence of this type of device, which has even put the safety of some commercial flights at risk.
In fact, those kinds of situations, along with the crossing of a military aircraft over the runway of that air terminal, reopened the debate over the appropriateness of having a military base located next to a civilian airport, the most important in Colombia and one of the largest in Latin America.
So far, the use of drones by illegal armed groups has increased in the areas where the armed conflict is most intense. Attacks using these devices are frequently reported in Cauca, Catatumbo, Antioquia, and Caqueta.
These illegal organizations have reached such a degree of sophistication that just one month ago the first documented attack using a drone swarm against National Army units was reported. The incident occurred in the district of Timba, under the jurisdiction of the municipality of Jamundi (Valle del Cauca).
The use of a drone swarm, an operation that involves the coordinated deployment of multiple unmanned aircraft, represents a challenge for the Military Forces because of the difficulty of neutralizing multiple low-cost and highly maneuverable threats.
The discovery that has just taken place in Bogota represents an alert and also a challenge for the city’s authorities, who, together with the public, are receiving a warning message from illegal organizations.