The USO did not let the three year signing of the free trade agreement between the United States and Colombia pass without pointing out what the union considers a concerted effort from the central government to suppress union rights, one of the contentious points of the agreement in the US congress.
Casanare has become a haven for using community distraught for personal gain, says an opinion column in the local paper. There might be justification in some of the complaints, but the demands and complaints have turned “into a true shopping list” says the author, who expresses a point of view rarely found in the local paper.
The mayor of Meta’s capital Villavicencio Juan Guillermo Zuluaga has called for a green tax for oil companies to compensate financially for the environmental toll on the producing and surrounding region.
The Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) has been coordinating an effort to get expert opinion on the causes of the drought affecting Paz de Ariporo, and that its roots are not firmly in the oil industry. But a persistent community movement continues to finger oil.
The final stretch of the Colombia’s great oil infrastructure: The Bicentennial Pipeline passes through Caño Limon, which is fraught with problems. Guerrillas attack it, while an indigenous community will not let crews in to repair it. The end result is missed shipments, 35,000bd of lost production worth millions a day and jobs for the local community. Who will right this situation?
A meeting in Yopal that included all the big institutions from the national government for a roads project in Casanare yielded an offer of support from the national government, but the local authorities say it pales in comparison to the costs of keeping heavy trucks on the road.
Citing the risk that social programs could be affected until royalty reforms, the central government has issued a decree to pay more than US$176M to producing regions, in what appears to be most relevant change to the new royalty system since its enactment.
The USO says the recent firing of the president of its Cartagena chapter –the arm of the union wrapped up in an extended conflict at the Cartagena Refinery (Reficar)- constitutes a new strategy “to exterminate” the union.
Casanare oil operators and authorities have taken a more active reaction to the emergency drought conditions in the department to both offer support to communities affected and contradict criticism and allegations that oil production has caused the emergency. Critics still remain.
In Monterrey a tanker passing another tanker truck crashed into two other tankers that had just collided while ascending a curvy bit of highway outside the locality known as “The curves”. Witnesses of the accident said that the driver passing the other tanker managed to avoid a full collision with the two other tankers that were stopped, but in doing so ended up in the ditch destroying all the trees and vegetation in its path.
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