FARC continues attacks on Colombia's oil infrastructure

Displaying a total disregard for the environment and for the Colombian people, the FARC on Monday continued its attacks against Colombia’s oil infrastructure. The FARC bombed part of the Transandino pipeline in southern Putumayo before dawn, damaging two homes. Thankfully, very little oil was spilled because the pipeline had been shutdown for repairs because of earlier FARC attacks last week.

The Colombian government has called the oil spill caused by the FARC’s attack last week possibly the worst environmental disaster in the country’s history. Though the FARC acknowledged the environmental damage is an “undesired” effect of their war against the Colombian state, they stressed that “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.”

Putumayo governor Jimmy Díaz Burbano went on the radio to beg the FARC to stop their environmentally destructive attacks. He pleaded, “Please, no more, sirs of the FARC.”

The National Colombian Association of Businessmen (ANDI) added to the calls for the FARC to focus on the peace negotiations in Havana instead of the attacks on Colombia’s oil infrastructure. The ANDI said in a statement, “The willingness for peace should go beyond just simple words and declarations, and become real acts of reconciliation.” It added that the recent pipeline bombings “go against the acts of peace that are necessary to create a political exit to the conflict and not only hurt the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of Colombians but also hurt the country as a whole.”