The World - News from May 13, 1988

Leftist guerrillas who last week kidnaped 15 foreigners and local journalists in Colombia have now blown up part of the nation’s main oil pipeline, spilling about 2,000 barrels of crude oil and interrupting pumping operations, Ecopetrol, the state oil company, reported. About 10 yards of pipe were destroyed by the blast, one of several such attacks that the pro-Cuban National Liberation Army has carried out this year against the 500 miles of pipeline used by Ecopetrol and two foreign firms, Occidental Petroleum and Shell. The guerrillas have freed all of their kidnap victims but have made a vague threat against a meeting of five Western Hemisphere oil exporting nations that starts today in the port city of Cartagena.