The Energy Operations Command No.1, a unit attached to the Second Division of the National Army, reports:
1. Yesterday, march 19, 2022, in the morning hours, in the municipality of el Tarra, Norte de Santander, around 200 people apparently mostly Venezuelan, tumultuous and violent, tried to pass security and enter the Military Base, La Esperanza.
2. The personnel of the military base were fulfilling their constitutional mission of conducting activities aimed at providing security and protection to the inhabitants of that municipality and its surrounding areas.
3. According to the information of the local authorities, in the municipality of El Tarra there are more than 6,000 people of foreign nationality and approximately 1,000 of them would be illegally occupying some properties of the municipality.
4. According to the information, alias Jhon Mechas and alias Pedro, leaders of the criminal structure of the residential Organized Armed Group, GAO-r, Structure 33, would have participated in these violent acts, who manipulated and used some inhabitants as shields and weapons turning this act into sedition.
This organized armed group aims to attack the Military Forces and the inhabitants of the region, through the manufacture and use of improvised explosive devices.
5. This event left one non-commissioned officer and two soldiers with wounds on the face and legs.
In the same way, it is known that three civilians were injured and are being assisted at the Ocaña hospital, in addition to one deceased. According to the first information, an improvised explosive device would have been activated, circumstances that are the subject of investigation by the authorities.
6. Those who participated in these criminal operations attacked the Military Base with the throwing of explosive devices and rifle shots. In the same way, improvised explosive devices were deactivated near the base. These operations violate Human rights and go against the norms of International Humanitarian law, behaviors that will be denounced to the authorities.
7. During the assault, innumerable damages were reported in the vicinity of the military base; in the same way, people who tried to enter violently left evidence of the consumption of alcoholic beverages in their way, all this in contravention and in the same way violating the curfew decreed by the municipal mayor, through Decree No. 024 of March 19 of this year, which were issued to be active from March 19 to March 22.
8. The institution during the assault fully complied with the protocols of the use of force in a gradual manner, attending to the Provision No.000002 of 2019, where there was no use of lethal weapons; in addition, reaction and counterattack plans were activated, in order to take the security operations in the facilities, in accordance with the pre-established in our military doctrine and rules that regulate the procedures in these violent environments.
9. We will continue to be respectful of the law and we will continue to combat the factors of criminality that daily disturb the tranquility of the peasant inhabitants and farmers, who seek to have a prosperous and peaceful territory for themselves and their families.
