At the beginning of March, an oil well in northern Colombia burst, spewing an unclear amount of oil into the Magdalena River, a principal waterway that flows about 950 miles northward through the western half of the country. Over the next month, reports say the crude killed more than 2,400 animals, including cattle, fish, birds, and reptiles, in the department of Santander. More than 1,000 tree species in the area have been damaged, and families have been relocated and treated for vomiting, headaches, and dizziness associated with the spill.

"I have practically nothing to eat, we have lived through the river all our lives and the contamination has already reached the Magdalena," one resident