FARC continues its attacks against Colombia's oil infrastructure

On Monday, FARC guerrillas attacked a helicopter belonging to an oil company that was servicing the area of Banadía, in the area of operations of the Bicentennial Pipeline of Colombia. The helicopter was delivering supplies to the oil company’s base, when FARC guerrillas fired upon it. Fortunately, no people were hurt and the helicopter was not seriously damaged.

Also on Monday, the FARC again bombed an oil pipeline in Colombia’s Putumayo department. According to information from the Colombian Army, guerrillas from the FARC’s 48^th Front bombed the Oso pipeline in the municipality of Orito. The attack caused another oil spill and resulted in a fire that affected several homes in the area, forcing the residents to evacuate the area.

Thankfully, the Colombian authorities were quickly able to bring the fire under control by closing down the pipeline. Once the Colombian military has secured the area, Colombian state-owned oil company Ecopetrol will dispatch technicians to the site to start the cleanup and repairs.

On Monday, the Colombian military announced that it had captured four FARC guerrillas who supposedly had participated in the recent pipeline attacks in Putumayo. Hopefully, this latest development means that the Colombian military will be able to put an end to these attacks.

In unrelated news, the Colombian peso plummeted to its lowest level against the dollar since June 2004. The Colombian peso’s movement has paralleled the rise and fall of international oil prices, which also fell due to concerns regarding the economic stability of Europe and China and the Greek debt crisis. Analysts warned that they do not know how much further the peso will fall.