Farc rebels bomb new section of Colombian oil pipeline
Bombing comes a week after another attack that government said may have caused the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history
Colombia’s Farc guerrillas bombed a new section of an oil pipeline on Monday, even as cleanup teams struggled to contain a massive oil spill that the government said may be the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history.
A bomb ripped through part of the Tansandino pipeline in southern Putumayo province before dawn on Monday, damaging two homes. Minimal oil was spilled because the pipeline was inactive at the time, officials said.
The attack came a week after another attack by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc, caused more than 10,000 barrels of oil to spill into rivers and streams in Nariño province, threatening to contaminate the Bay of Tumaco on the Pacific Ocean.
The spill left 150,000 residents of Tumaco without access to water and trucks were supplying the port city with water shipped from other parts of the country.
The bombings came amid a spate of attacks launched after the rebels announced in May the end of a unilateral ceasefire they had declared as part of ongoing peace talks with the government of Juan Manuel Santos.
Their main target has been the country’s oil and electricity infrastructure.
The same day as the spill in Nariño, Farc fighters forced oil tanker drivers to dump nearly 5,000 barrels of crude on the road.
In a statement from Havana, where peace talks have been held since 2012, the Farc said the environmental damage was an “undesired” effect of the war they have been waging against the state for more than 50 years. They argued, however, that they were not the ones chiefly responsible for hurting the environment in Colombia.
“There is no greater damage to the environment than the ‘ecocide’ constantly perpetrated by the economic policies of this government that the Farc combats every day,” the group said in a statement.
The resulting oil spills “pose serious threats to people’s lives and health, as well as to the integrity of ecosystems”, a group of environmental organisations said this week in a statement.
They stressed the need for the Farc, “to exclude both local communities and the ecosystem from the armed conflict”.
In a visit to Tumaco, Santos said the extent of the damage was difficult to gauge. “It is incommensurable,” he said. “It is possibly the worst environmental damage in the country’s history.
Santos said that the region’s fragile rainforest affected “may never be able to recover completely”.
Peace talks between the Farc and the government have been strained since the ceasefire was lifted and the rebels have stepped up their attacks. However, they continue to seek agreement on the issues of transitional justice and reparations for victims of the war.
“Spilling oil in the rivers is not an act of war, it is an act of barbarity,” Santos said.
- President Santos has only got himself to blame. He should never have called a truce with Farc and started "peace talks" but kept up the relentless bombing campaign of these leftist scumbags like his predecessor. Time and time again, truces are called, and the Farc use the time to regroup and commit more attacks.
- Time and time again...? Nonsense. Maybe once. Try reading up on history. And remember the time when a truce was called, only for hundreds of left-wing people to be massacred by the right when they tried to enter politics (many of which were not FARC), but normal people like you and I).
- I'm from colombia and the reaction here to this natural disaster from the environmental organisations and the "progressive" NGOs is almost non-existent... It's rather funny how the highly indoctrinated people react to this kind of events, just because the rebels are leftist in the ideological spectrum it doesn't mean that their crimes are not bad or less damaging!
Its not mandatory, if you are right wing, to support pinochet, franco or the americans killing people everywhere and it's also not mandatory, if you are leftist, to support castro, chavez and other left dictators, they are all bad, what they do is bad and their crimes are still bad even if they color them with nice social or economic theories.
What the farc did was a real and horrible crime. I would love to see a green peace crazy guy doing some show in the habana, however it looks like, since the green NGOs are leftist, then what the farc did is not so bad... i wonder if some day rationality, logic and common sense will do a visit to my country, even if they come for a short hollyday, i will be eternaly grateful.- I'm from Venzuela, I feel you! People think the world is black and white, not think that even "leftist" governments can also be corrupted. Oh no but because Chavez said that Bush smells like sulphur then he is a good leader.... Man in Veezuela we couldn't careless about Bush, we care about our country... But hey, if you are against Chavez then you must be CIA
Idiots everywhere
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