The path through the grey wasteland of what was once a teeming tropical forest spooks even the 200 soldiers from the Heroes of Taraza anti-guerrilla battalion. Towering palm trees have been burned to their roots. Rocks cracked with heat litter the jungle floor. The earth, black and brittle from the mixture of soil and 8,000 barrels of spilled oil, crackles like the crust of a badly burned cake. Later, a top commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN), the guerrilla group that carried out the mid-November oil-pipeline bombing in Arauca state, stands far away in a jungle clearing, his American-made R-15 automatic rifle strapped to his shoulder. “We minimize environmental damage to the greatest extent possible,” says Commander Guillermo, the... [Log in to read more]
