Militant attack against Caño-Limón-Coveñas oil pipeline recorded in Boyacá on November 8

Reports indicate that on November 8 a section of the Caño-Limón-Coveñas pipeline was bombed in Cubará, in the Boyacá Department, near the border with Venezuela. The attack caused an oil spill and a fire which spread to a nearby forest, located along the route that connects Saravena to Cubará. According to Ecopetrol, the national oil company, the Caño-Limón-Coveñas pipeline has been attacked 77 times throughout 2018. It represents one of the largest oil infrastructures in the country, running from the Arauca Department on the border of Venezuela to Coveñas on Colombia's Caribbean coastline.

The attack takes place weeks after a similar incident transpired in Boyaca on October 24. As previously assessed, ample precedent suggests that the National Liberation Army (ELN), which operates extensively through the area, is likely behind these attacks. Considering that the pipeline has an extension of 780 kilometers and falls within ELN territory, security services are unlikely to deter or prevent further attacks, which can be carried out without much preparation and without sophisticated explosives.