Colombian Air Force deployed Kfir fighters to San Andrés to protect sovereignty and carry out Air and Naval exercises
The Colombian Air Force deployed this week a squad of IAI Kfir C-10 fighter-bomber aircraft attached to Combat Squadron No. 111 to the island of San Andrés, within the framework of air-naval exercises that it is conducting with surface units of the National Navy of Colombia and to reinforce the sovereignty of Colombia in the airspace of the Colombian Caribbean. The activity, which was supported by the Boeing KC-767 "Jupiter" air refueling plane, began this Wednesday, March 10, when three supersonic fighter-bombers took off from the Air Combat Command No. 1 located in Puerto Salgar (Cundinamarca) with the mission to temporarily deploy to the Caribbean Air Group (GACAR) of the Colombian Air Force located at the Gustavo Rojas Pinilla International Airport of the island. The objective of this type of exercise is to accustom the pilots of these advanced aircraft to operate in this type of environment and their ability to interoperate with units of the Colombian Navy, as well as to demonstrate the deployment capacity and firepower of the Colombian Air Force in the face of any external threat that puts the territorial integrity of this region of Colombia at risk. This unusual deployment comes weeks after Nicaragua passed a law in which it unilaterally and illegally appropriated a large region of the Colombian Caribbean Sea, which generated the rejection of the Government of Iván Duque, which, through its Foreign Ministry presented an energetic protest in rejection of this statute that considers large portions of the Caribbean Sea as if they were part of Nicaraguan territory. Colombia highlighted that this Nicaraguan measure does not comply with international requirements and procedures for the recognition of areas and places of special interest and environmental protection. "It is a unilateral decision by Nicaragua that ignores the existence and achievements in terms of environmental protection of the Seaflower Biosphere Reserve, declared as such since 2000 by UNESCO," they expressed in a press release. In its protest note, Colombia rejected that, under the pretext of an environmental protection measure and contrary to international law, Nicaragua includes and qualifies portions of the Caribbean Sea as if they were part of its territory. According to the Foreign Ministry, the declaration represents one more attempt by Nicaragua to generate facts before the International Court of Justice, with the aim of pretending to comply with and respect the norms on human rights and the environment, despite the fact that it is already widely known. by the international community that the Nicaraguan authorities are systematic offenders in these matters. The Government of Colombia reiterated that it will spare no effort in defending the highest interests of the Nation before international bodies, including the rights of Colombians, including those of the Raizal population and all the inhabitants of the Archipelago. In addition to the unfriendly actions of Nicaragua, in recent days Venezuelan General Ovidio de Jesús Delgado Ramírez, commander of the Strategic Integral Defense Region (REDI) Los Andes, threatened to attack strategic targets on the island, if any incursion were to occur. of Colombian troops to Venezuelan soil. "How much Colombia lacks a Chávez, we always say it and emphasize it, if they dare to set foot on the sacred national soil, we will go to Bogotá and to San Andrés," said Delgado Ramírez while adding that there is a principle of the international diplomatic relations, which is the principle of reciprocity, "if you set foot here, I set foot there." With the increase in warmongering rhetoric and the legal and political actions of the main conflict hypotheses that Colombia has, the country's Military Forces will continue to demonstrate their operational readiness and the capabilities they have to defend the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the nation.
