More than 3,000 land mines that were placed around Lima’s maximum security Miguel Castro Castro prison have been deactivated and removed, according to state news agency Andina.
The operation was carried out by Divescom, a police unit specialized in removing land mines.
The work to remove the mines from the prison began on September 7, 2009, the Interior Ministry’s deputy minister for institutional management, Nestor Arevalo, said.
Peru’s government placed land mines around three penitentiary centers during the 1980s and 1990s when it was locked in a bloody conflict with Sendero Luminoso insurgents. The other prisons are Yanamayo in Puno region and Huacariz in Cajamarca. Authorities now plan to remove the land mines from those centers, Arevalo said.
In addition, the government will start removing miens from around high tension pylons in Junin and Huancavelica regions.
The government planted mines around pylons that carry transmission lines in the main power grid from the Mantaro hydroelectric plant in the central highlands to Lima.
Between 1980 and 1992, Sendero Luminoso insurgents frequently used dynamite to destroy the pylons that fed electricity to Lima and other key cities. Land mines were placed around more than 2,400 pylons, as well as around some electricity substations.
Most of Peru’s anti-personal land mines yet to be removed are located on the border with Ecuador, placed during the brief 1995 Cenepa war between the two South American countries over 48-miles of unmarked territory in the Andean foothills.
I am suprised that the mines have stayed there for over 15 years!
It seems like it is about time to remove them!