Joint Task Force OMEGA ( es, Fuerza de tarea conjunta OMEGA) is a joint task force involving the

Military of Colombia The Military Forces of Colombia ( es, Fuerzas Militares de Colombia, links=no) are the unified armed forces of the Republic of Colombia. They consist of the Colombian Army, the Colombian Navy and the Colombian Air Force. The National Police ...

in support of

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 ...

(Now replaced by Plan Consolidación) assembled with the main purpose of capturing the leaders of the

Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia – People's Army ( es, link=no, Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de ColombiaEjército del Pueblo, FARC–EP or FARC) is a Marxist–Leninist guerrilla group involved in the continuing Colombian confl ...

(FARC).

Mission

Its purpose is to conduct military operations, planning, developing and implementing assault operations, surveillance, interdiction, security and support, combating and neutralizing the narco-terrorist organizations, with an emphasis on neutralizing their leaders, their logistics infrastructure, economic base, and precipitate the military defeat of their armed paramilitaries.

Organization

The JTF OMEGA was formed by the best 15,000 soldiers in the military of Colombia selected from the

Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...

Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ar ...

and

Navy A navy, naval force, or maritime force is the branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral, or ocean-borne combat operations and related functions. It include ...

. The task force headquarters is located in the Military Fort Larandia in the

Department of Caqueta 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, ...

Field units

Field units of the Task Force consist of eight brigades as follows: * Mobile Brigades 1, 2 and 3 which make up the

Rapid Deployment Force A rapid deployment force is a military formation that is capable of fast deployment. Such forces typically consist of elite military units (special forces, paratroopers, marines, etc.) and are usually trained at a higher intensity than the rest ...

(Fuerza de Despliegue Rápido or "FUDRA"), these units are based in

La Macarena "Macarena" is a dance song by Spanish pop duo Los del Río, about a woman of the same name. The song uses a type of clave rhythm. Originally appearing on the 1993 album '' A mí me gusta'', a subsequent remix by Miami-based producers The Bay ...

in the

Department of Meta Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed by the Meta River, is covered by a grassland plain known as ...

; * Mobile Brigade No. 6 based in Cartagena del Chairá, Department of Guaviare * Mobile Brigade No. 7 based in Calamar, Department of Guaviare * Mobile Brigade No. 9 based in San Vicente del Caguán, Department of Guaviare * Mobile Brigade No. 10 based in Miraflores, Department of Guaviare * Mobile Brigade No. 22 based in

Peñas Coloradas Peñas is a location in the La Paz Department, Bolivia, La Paz Department in Bolivia. References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Penas Populated places in La Paz Department (Bolivia) ...

. Apart from the land component, the JTF has a river component located in

Tres Esquinas Tres may refer to: * Tres (instrument), a Cuban musical instrument * Tres, Trentino, municipality in Italy * "Tres" (song) by Juanes * "Tres", a song by Líbido from their album '' Hembra'' * TrES, the ''Trans-Atlantic Exoplanet Survey'' * Templ ...

, and an aviation component in the bases of Larandia and Apiay.

Operations

Operations left 137 members of the Colombian military killed in action and 1,300 wounded. After the end of

, The Joint Task Force OMEGA was renamed to

OMEGA Campaign Omega (; capital: Ω, lowercase: ω; Ancient Greek ὦ, later ὦ μέγα, Modern Greek ωμέγα) is the twenty-fourth and final letter in the Greek alphabet. In the Greek numeric system/ isopsephy ( gematria), it has a value of 800. The w ...

on December 10, 2006 to support the Plan Consolidación.

Commanders

* General

Reinaldo Castellanos Reinaldo is a Spanish and Portuguese language given name for males (the English form is Reynold). It may refer to: Football * Reinaldo Merlo (born 1950), Argentine former footballer and manager *Reinaldo Gomes (born 1954), Portuguese football stri ...

(????-2004) * General

Carlos Alberto Fracica Carlos may refer to: Places ;Canada * Carlos, Alberta, a locality ;United States * Carlos, Indiana, an unincorporated community * Carlos, Maryland, a place in Allegany County * Carlos, Minnesota, a small city * Carlos, West Virginia ;Elsewh ...

(2004-2005) * 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 G ...

(2005-2006) * General

Alejandro Navas Alejandro is the Spanish form of the name Alexander. Alejandro has multiple variations in different languages, including Aleksander ( Czech, Polish), Alexandre (French), Alexandros ( Greek), Alsander ( Irish), Alessandro ( Italian), Aleksand ...

(2006-2008) * General

Javier Alberto Florez Aristizabal Javier may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Javier, in video game '' Advance Wars: Dual Strike'' * Javier Rios, a character in the Monsters, Inc. ''Monsters, Inc.'' (also known as ''Monsters, Incorporated'') is a 2001 American com ...

(2008–present)

Guerrilla infiltration scandal

During an operation on July 15, 2007 in the jungles of Colombia by the

Colombian National Army The National Army of Colombia ( es, Ejército Nacional de Colombia) is the land warfare service branch of the Military Forces of Colombia. With over 361,420 active personnel as of 2020, it is the largest and oldest service branch in Colombia, ...

soldiers of the

17th Counter-Guerrilla Battalion 17 (seventeen) is the natural number following 16 and preceding 18. It is a prime number. Seventeen is the sum of the first four prime numbers. In mathematics 17 is the seventh prime number, which makes seventeen the fourth super-prime, a ...

2nd Mobile Brigade, localized a FARC campsite in the village of Montañitas, in the municipality of

Mesetas Mesetas is a town and municipality in the Meta Department, Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well ...

Meta Department Meta () is a department of Colombia. It is close to the geographic center of the country, to the east of the Andean mountains. A large portion of the department, which is also crossed by the Meta River, is covered by a grassland plain known as ...

and after a confrontation with members of FARC's 42nd Front, soldiers found on the body a guerrilla named José Nerup Reyes Peña (the presumed leader of that front), hard discs and USB drives containing information about members of the FARC guerrilla infiltration in the JTF OMEGA. The hard drive contained detailed maps outlining anti-guerrilla operations by Omega.

References

External links

Colombian National Armada: Joint Task Force OMEGA
{{Military of Colombia Military units and formations of Colombia Joint task forces (armed forces) Colombian conflict National Army of Colombia