Ecopetrol announces additional pipeline attacks

Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol denounced three new attacks against Colombia’s oil pipelines, which Colombian authorities have attributed to the country’s leftist guerrilla groups, the FARC and the ELN. The Colombian Herald’s report noted that these attacks bring the total number so far for 2015 to 34, less than the 64 recorded during the same period last year.

The Mansoya-Orito and Transandino pipelines were the targets of the attacks, though the Transandino pipeline was shut down at the time, as it was undergoing repairs for a separate attack earlier this week.

The Inter-American Association for Environmental Defense, the National Environmental Forum, the Natura Foundation, and the Klimaforum Latinoamerica Network all denounced the recent FARC attacks for their destructive effect on the environment. The environmental organizations said in a statement that the oil spills that resulted from the FARC’s attacks “pose serious threats to people’s lives and health, as well as to the integrity of ecosystems.”

The most recent oil spill, a result of the earlier attack against the Transandino Pipeline, is, according to Colombian Environment minister Gabriel Vallejo, the worst environmental disaster in Colombia in the last 10 years. The attacks caused 410,000 gallons of crude oil to pour into the Mira River, contaminating the water supply for the Colombian city of Tumaco.