Ecuador Army Seizes Guerrilla Weapons

The Ecuadorian Army shows weapons, bullets, improvised explosive devices, military clothing, and patches with the initials of the former Colombian FARC EP guerrilla group seized from a guerrilla camp in the Ecuadorian Amazon on the border with Peru.

After the military located the camp, members of an illegal armed group (GIA) opened fire on the soldiers.

A Colombian member of the illegal group was killed in the clash, according to the Ecuadorian military.

A confrontation between the military and guerrillas that occurred in the jungle of the Ecuadorian Amazon left one person, a Colombian national, dead, the Ecuadorian Army reported.

The uniformed officers located a guerrilla camp in the Alto Punino sector, in the province of Orellana, where members of an “GIA” opened fire on the soldiers, "leading to a confrontation," he said. the Army in a statement.

He added that in the confrontation "a 30-year-old GIA member of Colombian nationality died."

The institution noted that long-range weapons, more than 1,200 bullets, improvised explosive devices, military clothing and patches with the initials FARC EP, the Colombian guerrilla that signed a peace agreement with the Colombian government in 2016, were found at the site. from which dissent remained.

The military also deployed an arms control operation in the area and detained two Colombian citizens who were carrying a submachine gun and other weapons.

Following a violent attack by drug trafficking groups in January, the Ecuadorian government declared the nation in internal armed conflict and ordered the military to neutralize these organizations, branded as terrorists and belligerents.

The country is carrying out a so-called Phoenix Plan that has since left more than 8,000 detainees and the confiscation of almost 53 tons of drugs and 2,400 weapons, according to the government.