Oil Exploration Permit Angers Colombian Tribe
9/22/99
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Title: Oil Exploration Permit Angers Colombian Tribe
Source: The Washington Post
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 22, 1999
BOGOTA -- The Colombian government granted Occidental Petroleum a
license to explore for oil next to Indian lands--a step a tribe says
could spell death for its people and culture. Calling the cultural
threat and the environmental impact minimal, the government said it
granted the license to promote Colombia's economic development.
Environment Minister Juan Mayr announced the decision to allow the
Los Angeles-based company to conduct exploratory drilling just
outside a 543,000-acre reserve inhabited by the tiny U'wa Indian
nation of 8,000 members.
Last month, the government expanded the tribe's reservation nearly
four-fold. The semi-nomadic U'wa fish and farm in the hilly forested
territory near Colombia's border with Venezuela. Mayr denied the U'wa
were given the land to make them favorably disposed toward the oil
exploration permit.