Mobius report 37/2023 – Improvised Claymore and AP Mine Caches in Northern Ecuador

On May 10, 2023, a joint Ecuadorian National Police and Armed Forces of Ecuador operation led to the discovery of a weapons cache belonging to the Colombian “Comandos de la Frontera” group in Lago Agrio canton, in Sucumbíos Province, in northern Ecuador, bordering Colombia. The cache contained a large number of improvised AP mines and components, improvised Claymore-type mines, improvised launch tubes, and medical syringes used as initiation systems for mines. The “Comandos de la Frontera,” an armed group that operates along the border between Colombia and Ecuador, comprises former FARC dissidents and demobilized members of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, and is allied with the Colombian FARC Segunda Marquetalia. Hence the similarity of the IED components and especially the improvised mines to Colombian IEDs. The latest seizures from the region indicate a change in the characteristics of the IEDs and the production of improvised Claymore-like mines with directional fragmentation, compared to IEDs with no fragmentation in the past that characterized seizures of the organization’s weapons in northern Ecuador.