Officials face pressure from guerrillas and paramilitaries alike to invest the payments in their favor. And many officials simply steal or squander the money. In a petroleum-rich central valley known as the Middle Magdalena, more than 70 percent of the 750,000 inhabitants live in poverty and nearly 40 percent are unemployed, double the official nationwide rate. Both the FARC and ELN have a growing presence in southern Venezuela. And some Venezuelan military equipment has found its way into FARC hands.
Venezuelan oil weighs heavy in U.S. strategy for the region.
In other countries, the spillover violence from Colombia has begun to menace petroleum production. Just across the San Miguel River from Putumayo, the Colombian province, conflict pervades the town of Lago Agrio, the Ecuadoran oil hub. The area has long been a site of rest and relaxation for FARC guerrillas. But the mood has changed since U.S.-backed counterinsurgency and coca eradication caused a larger influx of farmers, other displaced Colombians, guerrillas and paramilitaries. Local police say violence in December killed 20 people, including 15 who perished in clashes between Colombian guerrillas and paramilitaries and five in a bombing of Ecuador's only oil pipeline.