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Colombia investigates Italian firm over bribes to guerrillas

By Luis Jaime Acosta BOGOTA (Reuters) - Colombia is investigating Italian construction company SICIM over bribes to Marxist guerrilla groups to guarantee the security of its workers and machinery and plans to make arrests, the Attorney General's office said on Wednesday. The local unit of SICIM is under investigation by the Attorney General's anti-terrorism unit for payments to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and its smaller counterpart, the National Liberation army (ELN), an official, who was not authorized to speak on the subject, told Reuters. "There is an investigation underway into directors of the company for payments to the guerrillas and several arrest warrants will be issued," he said. SICIM is headquartered in Italy and has subsidiaries in Africa, Europe and in North and South America. It took part in the first phase of construction of the Bicentenario oil pipeline, which has a 110,000-barrel daily capacity to transport crude. According to evidence gathered by the Attorney General's office, including recordings of phone calls between guerrilla members and SICIM directors, the company paid protection money while operating in the northeastern Arauca and Casanare regions. Construction on the Bicentennario started in 2011 and the pipeline began operation in 2013. The first phase of the project which SICIM built, a 230-km (143 mile) section of the pipeline, cost around $1 billion (659 million pounds). Staff at SICIM's offices in Colombia and Italy said no one was immediately available to comment on the investigation. President Juan Manuel Santos has threatened in the past to expel from Colombia companies found to be paying extortion to the guerrillas. The government has been in peace talks with the FARC since late 2012 and has reached partial agreements on three out of five agenda points, including land reform, an end to the narcotics trade and political participation for ex-rebels. Investment in Colombia's oil and mining sectors has shot up in recent years, after a U.S.-backed military offensive lasting more than a decade drove rebel groups deeper into rural areas. Even so, the rebels have intensified attacks on oil infrastructure like pipelines over the last year. Extortion of extractive industry companies was common in the past when rebel presence was heavier and continues to be a major funding source for the groups, security sources say. (Writing by Peter Murphy; editing by Andrew Hay)