MADRID 29 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) –
Two soldiers have died and two more have been injured in combat with members of an armed group in Esmeralda, in the municipality of Puerto Rondón, in the department of Arauca, in northeastern Colombia.
The confrontation occurred on December 26, when three soldiers were hit by gunfire. One of the soldiers, Keyler Alonso Ruiz Hernández, died that same day. Hernández, a native of the municipality of Curumaní, Cesar, had been in the Army for thirteen years.
Two days later, the professional soldier Sebastián Niño Jiménez, who was admitted to the Regional Hospital of the East in Yopal Casanare and who was a native of Yopal, Casanare, died due to his injuries. He had been in the Army for seven years.
The National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla has a presence in this border area with Venezuela. So far this year, at least 90 soldiers have died in the context of the armed conflict, the vast majority in the regions of Cauca, Arauca and Catatumbo.