After U.S.-based Occidental Petroleum Corp. discovered the 1.3 billion-barrel Caño Limón oil field in 1983, the company teamed up with the Colombian government to build this 483-mile-long pipeline from Aruaca to the Caribbean port of Covenas. Although the pipeline's capacity is 240,000 barrels of oil per day, in 2001, the pipeline was closed for 243 days -- fully two-thirds of the year -- because of the rebel bombings. Rebel groups have blown so many holes in Caño Limón over the past two decades of civil war -- roughly 950 bombings at last count -- that Colombians have nicknamed it "the flute."

Increased security efforts in 2002 appear to have reduced the number of attacks, and a recent major shift in U.S. foreign policy toward Colombia is intended to permanently secure what is now seen as an increasingly important future source of U.S. oil imports.

Compiled by Jake Bergman, Kimberly Tabor, Kelly Whalen

Photo: "Tribal Groups"
Credit: Agence France-Presse / Mike Nelson

Photo: "Paramilitary Groups"
Credit: Eros Hoagland

Photo: "Rebel Groups"
Credit: Eros Hoagland

Photo: "Narco-Traficantes"
Credit: Agence France-Presse / Armada Nacional

Photo: "Civilians"
Credit: Eros Hoagland

Photo: "Colombian President Alvaro Uribe"
Credit: United Nations