Oil inflames Colombia's civil war

"We need mobility and the capacity to react fast. With the right equipment we could defend it, but our resources are limited," says Lemus.

The general doesn't even have his own helicopter, and with the roads often blockaded by guerrillas, Lemus must cadge a ride on an Occidental helicopter to visit troops along the pipeline. Under an agreement with the government, Occidental provides "nonlethal" aid to the Army such as fuel, food, and transport, but Lemus believes it could do more.

"I think that the company hasn't done enough to apply modern technology. We've been asking them to install some kind of early-warning system with sensors. At the moment, the only sensors are our soldiers," he says.

Troops on motorbikes patrol the access roads around the Occidental compound, while a Colombian Army surveillance plane circles overhead. This year, the troops have foiled some 17 attacks already, but according to one officer, the region's problem cannot be solved by military means alone.

"Even if we had the entire Colombian Army guarding the pipeline, with a soldier every 500 meters, we couldn't prevent every attack," says Maj. Edgar Delgado, commander of the Army base at the oilfield. "We don't need more aircraft or more weapons," he says. "The [military] aid should come with progress - education, health clinics, and roads."

Before the first prospectors struck oil, Arauca was a sparsely populated cattle-ranching region, mostly ignored by the central government. Royalty payments and company handouts brought electricity, roads, and some jobs, but the oil boom also caused a population explosion, inflation, and the decline of local agriculture.

Local officials say that most of the profits have been siphoned off by corrupt politicians. The state capital, also called Arauca, is dotted with costly white-elephant building projects such as a velodrome, which was used just once and is now flooded and abandoned.

"Whenever there is a boom, people think it will solve all their problems," says Oscar García, president of the local chapter of the Colombian oilworkers union. "We had very big expectations, but we weren't prepared to handle this much money."

Ironically, the rebels have grown rich on oil money, using threats and intimidation to force officials to use companies with guerrilla ties, and regularly charging a 5 percent "tax" on every government contract.

Local government depends on royalties to meet its budget, and so every bomb attack means less money for the region's schools and hospitals, says Arauca Mayor Jorge Cedeño. But unemployment and the thin state presence mean that the guerrillas still offer an alternative for the disaffected rural poor.

"If they have to reinforce security, let them do it, but there must also be social development. If we don't solve the social problems, the war will continue."

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