Operation JM () was a military operation by the

Military of Colombia The Military Forces of Colombia () are the unified armed forces of the Colombia, Republic of Colombia. They consist of the National Army of Colombia, Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Aerospace Force. The National Police of Col ...

Joint Task Force OMEGA Joint Task Force OMEGA () is a joint task force involving the Military of Colombia in support of Plan Patriota (Now replaced by Plan Consolidación) assembled with the main purpose of capturing the leaders of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colo ...

intended to capture or kill the leaders of the

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army (, FARC–EP or FARC) was a Marxist–Leninist Guerrilla warfare, guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian conflict starting in 1964. The FARC-EP was officially founded in ...

guerrilla (FARC), as part of the

Plan Patriota Plan Patriota (In English, ''Patriot Plan'') is military plan developed by the Government of Colombia with the financial support of the Government of the United States in an effort to uproot the guerrilla groups in Colombia, more specifically the Re ...

. The operations began in April 2004 and after some 30 operations concluded without the main objective being accomplished in December 2006. However, the Colombian military achieved numerous military advances in a region that had been dominated by the guerrillas.

2004

Military operations started in April 2004 in the jungle area known as ''

Llanos del Yarí The Llanos (Spanish language, Spanish ''Los Llanos'', "The Plains"; ) is a vast tropical grassland plain situated to the east of the Andes in Colombia and Venezuela, in northwestern South America. It is an ecoregion of the tropical and subtropic ...

'' and in the area of the former El Caguan demilitarized zone, between the

Departments Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military * Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Meta Meta most commonly refers to: * Meta (prefix), a common affix and word in English ( in Greek) * Meta Platforms, an American multinational technology conglomerate (formerly ''Facebook, Inc.'') Meta or META may also refer to: Businesses * Meta (ac ...

, Caqueta and Guaviare. The objective of the first operation was to capture or kill FARC guerrilla leader aka " Mono Jojoy" believed to be the military commander of the FARC, and other three members of the secretariat or higher command of the FARC that were believed to be in the area. According to the Colombian military "Mono Jojoy" managed to evade the operation, but 17 of his men were killed and his main camp site was destroyed.

2005

In 2005

land mine A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

s and

leishmaniasis Leishmaniasis is a wide array of clinical manifestations caused by protozoal parasites of the Trypanosomatida genus ''Leishmania''. It is generally spread through the bite of Phlebotominae, phlebotomine Sandfly, sandflies, ''Phlebotomus'' an ...

took a big toll in the Colombian military, some 10,000 soldiers were terminated from the service, this adding to the number of combat casualties suffered.

2006

On November 20, 2006, the

engaged in combat operations against members of the

Southern Bloc of the FARC-EP The Southern Bloc of the FARC-EP was the first bloc of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia to exist and is where the roots of the guerrilla movement lie. The bloc has been held responsible for several notorious attacks, including the infam ...

near the town of Cartagena del Chaira. General

Gilberto Rocha Gilberto is the Iberian and Italian version of the originally Norman-French given name '' Gilbert'', used in Italian, Portuguese and Spanish languages. In Galician, it's spelled Xilberto or Xilberte. ''Gilbert'' is ultimately derived from the Ge ...

announced that three soldiers and 11 rebels were killed.findarticles.com: Rebels blamed in blasts injuring 15 in Colombia
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Results

The main objective of the operation was not accomplished but major advances against the guerrilla were accomplished. Initially the theater of operations covered a total area of 85,000 km² where some 150 thousand civilians live and approximately 4,350 members of the FARC operated. By the end of the operation the Colombian military calculated that there were 2,525 guerrillas still operating in the area. The Colombian military also destroyed some 35,000 h of illegal crops and by the end of operations there were some 15,000 h left to destroy. The Colombian Army also neutralized mobility corridors and road networks that the FARC had set up in the region and recovered fluvial navigation in the

Guayabero Guayabero is a Guahiban language that is spoken by a thousand people in Colombia. Many of its speakers are monoglots, with few fluent Spanish speakers in the population. Phonology The Guayabero syllable structure A syllable is a basic un ...

, Caguan River, Vaupes and

Yari is the term for a traditionally-made Japanese blade (日本刀; nihontō) in the form of a spear, or more specifically, the straight-headed spear. The martial art of wielding the is called . History The forerunner of the is thought to be a ...

rivers A river is a natural stream of fresh water that flows on land or inside caves towards another body of water at a lower elevation, such as an ocean, lake, or another river. A river may run dry before reaching the end of its course if it ru ...

. There were also 137 members of the Colombian military

killed in action Killed in action (KIA) is a casualty classification generally used by militaries to describe the deaths of their personnel at the hands of enemy or hostile forces at the moment of action. The United States Department of Defense, for example, ...

and some 1,300 wounded.

References

{{Colombia conflict 2004 in Colombia 2005 in Colombia 2006 in Colombia JM