The religious tension along the Colombian-Venezuelan border, especially in the Colombian province of Arauca in the great plains region called the llanos, served as a useful distraction as both governments traveled down the highway of uncontrolled capitalism. In both religion and market share, the two countries had become bitter enemies. Historically it had not always been so, but latent animosity was always a key element for understanding the national psyches. Indeed, it had been created at the time of Bolivar, the great leader's dream of one great Andean country evaporating with the political bickering endemic to the region. His Gran Colombia had fractured into Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador.

Now Hugo Mora was leading his country along paths that would have astounded that great general of another era, railing against the sinners across the border while secretly coveting Colombian oil. And Luis German Palacios was leading the radical Catholic response.

The real problem was oil, Cardenas knew. Venezuela, Colombia, and Ecuador sit on the Venezuela-Orinoco belt which became the biggest oil producing region in the world after the light crude in the Middle East all but disappeared. Venezuela had begun to exploit its natural resource early on in the twentieth century, but by 2005 Colombia was the third largest exporter of oil after Venezuela and Mexico and oil was its number one legal export.

Over the next decades the lighter crude from Venezuela also disappeared, but the heavy crude which needed more refining became exploitable as the price per barrel rose. The entire Faja del Orinoco in eastern Venezuela was explored and exploited. Colombia exploited the oil in its middle Magdalena Valley and in the provinces of Arauca and Putamayo. Ecuador, not wanting to miss out on the huge profits, sent its petroleum off to fuel the world's economy as fast as it could pump it out of the ground.