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Farc commander ‘Timochenko’ said that he has ordered the guerrilla to stop collecting ‘taxes’, or extortion money, due the pending peace agreement. And the wait for a ruling on a plebiscite from the Constitutional Court stays tense.

The first UN observers have arrived to Colombia to oversee the eventual laying down of arms and confirm the bilateral cease fire between the Farc and the government, as the process continues forward following last week’s agreement.

By enacting a peace agreement, Colombia will have an opportunity to develop the knowledge of its subsoil to visualize opportunities and threats, said the Minister of Mines and Energy (MinMinas) Germán Arce.

Both the Colombian Petroleum Association (ACP) and the Colombian Association of Oil Engineers (ACIPET) welcomes the recent ceasefire agreement, and said that the oil industry has been one of the sectors most affected by the armed conflict.

Government and Farc negotiators announced on Wednesday that an agreement had been reached on a bilateral and definitive cease fire. President Juan Manuel Santos and other heads of states gathered in Havana today (Thursday, June 23) to sign the agreement.

Government and Farc negotiators are working in separate sessions until next Monday, June 20^th, before starting an intensive round that press reports are billing to be one of the last. Meanwhile President Juan Manuel Santos warned the Farc could resume urban warfare if talks fail.

Attacks by the ELN guerrilla on the Coveñas/Caño Limon pipeline have rendered US$20B in damage to the oil infrastructure and another US$20B in environmental damage in the last 28 years, according to data released by Colombia’s Attorney General’s office.

The Centro Democratico party of Senator Alvaro Uribe kicked off a “firmaton”, a campaign to collect signatures and a call for civil resistance, just as the peace talks and the legal instrument which will be used to approve a final agreement reaches a critical moment.

Despite assurances from leaders of the UTEN oil workers union, which affiliated Pacific E&P workers in the Rubiales field, Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has confirmed it will not use the UTEN workers, it will hire a completely new workforce, in a victory for the more militant USO union.

Ecopetrol (NYSE:EC) has signed an agreement with communities which affected its production in Chichimene, in the Acacías and Castilla la Nueva Municipalities, but reports show a willful criminal activity behind the protests, which could flare up again.