Indigenous leaders in Colombia’s southwestern Cauca department said the black box from an air force plane that crashed July 11 will be handed over to authorities, reported radio station Caracol.
The black box, which would help determine the cause of the plane crash, would be handed over to local representatives of the United Nations who would then give it to the government, indigenous sources said.
The news was confirmed by the mayor of the municipality of Jambolo, where the crash took place.
FARC guerrillas claimed to have downed the Colombian air force (FAC) plane with a 50 caliber machine gun Tuesday, a claim refuted by government sources who said the crash was due to a mechanical error.
If the FARC has managed to procure anti-aircraft guns it could be a turning point in the Colombian conflict, as the government’s ability to carry out airstrikes has been one of its most powerful counterinsurgency tools, particularly in rural areas.
The FARC revealed earlier this week the airplane carried high power explosives that have yet to be encountered.
Cauca, which has long been a stronghold for leftist guerrilla group the FARC, experienced a rash of incidents recently that highlighted the dire security situation in the troubled department.
On July 11, some 400 members of an indigenous community occupied a military communications base near the embattled town of Toribio to protest increased military presence in the region. This occured on the same day that President Juan Manuel Santos visited the town to announce a new security strategy aimed at tackling FARC presence in Cauca. Police reclaimed the base Tuesday resulting in one death and the injury of 23 others.