COLOMBIA:REBEL GROUPS BLAMED FOR PIPELINE BOMBINGS WHILE COCA FARMERS PROTEST AT GOVERNMENT ERADICATION OF THEIR CROP

Record ID: 358477

  • Title: COLOMBIA:REBEL GROUPS BLAMED FOR PIPELINE BOMBINGS WHILE COCA FARMERS PROTEST AT GOVERNMENT ERADICATION OF THEIR CROP
  • Date: 5th August 1996
  • Summary: PUTUMAYO, COLOMBIA (AUGUST 5-6, 1996)(RTV ACCESS ALL) (AUGUST 5, 1996) 1. SLV ECOPETROL OIL PIPELINE BURNING AT NIGHT (3 SHOTS) 0.20 2. SMV'S REPORTERS AT SCENE OF PIPELINE SABOTAGE, PIPELINE BURNING (5 SHOTS) 0.55 (AUGUST 6, 1996) 3. SMV COCA GROWERS DURING DEMONSTRATION AGAINST GOVERNMENT ERADICATION PROGRAM. (3 SH
  • Embargoed: 20th August 1996 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: PUTUMAYO, COLOMBIA
  • City:
  • Country: Colombia LATIN AMERICA
  • Reuters ID: LVA2EQWORFB3SZG32GCPG28NJBJ2
  • Story Text: - INTRO: Colombian rebel groups are being blamed for at least two pipeline bombings and demonstrations by coca farmers protesting at the government's eradication of their crops.

    ------------------------------------------------------------------ Rebels have stepped up attacks across Colombia this week, killing 10 soldiers in the north and bombing oil installations in the south where they are linked to protests against government plans to eradicate drug crops, military sources said on Tuesday (August 6).

    The sources said the soldiers were killed on Monday (August 5) in separate attacks in rugged Arauca and Norte de Santander provinces.

    The attacks came on the same day rebels blew up at least two sections of an oil pipeline in southwest Colombia near the border with Ecuador, where tens of thousands of peasants are protesting against the government's U.S.-backed drug crop eradication programme.

    A spokesman for the state oil company Ecopetrol said repair work on the pipeline continued on Tuesday and pumping was expected to resume by Wednesday.

    Government and military officials blame Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) rebels for protests in Putumayo province, where the pipeline blasts occurred, and three other southern provinces.

    The FARC, Colombia's largest and oldest guerrilla group, specialises in protecting rural drug farms and laboratories and maintains a strong presence throughout central and southern Colombia.

    The United States removed Colombia as a partner in U.S.

    counter-narcotics efforts on March 1, making charges that President Ernesto Samper's 1994 election campaign received millions of dollars in support from Cali cartel drug barons.

    Washington is now threatening to impose crippling economic sanctions on Colombia unless it toes the U.S. line on drugs. It is demanding that Colombia wipe out more than 44,000 acres (18,000 hectares) of coca fields and nearly 10,000 acres (18,000 hectares) of opium poppy this year alone.

    Leading U.S. oil companies operating in Colombia urged Washington not to impose sanctions in a letter made public on Monday by Colombia's Ministry of Energy and Mines.


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