Colombia Oks Oil Drilling on U'wa Land
10/12/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Colombia Oks Oil Drilling on U'wa Land
Source: U'wa Defense Working Group Action Alert
Status: Distribute freely with credit given to source
Date: October 12, 1999
"We are seeking an explanation for this `progress' that goes against
life. We are demanding that this kind of progress stop, that oil
exploitation in the heart of the Earth is halted, that the deliberate
bleeding of the Earth stop...we ask that our brothers and sisters
from other races and cultures unite in the struggle that we are
undertaking...we believe that this struggle has to become a global
crusade to defend life."
- Statement of the U'wa people, August, 1998
COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT OKS OCCIDENTAL PETROLEUM PROJECT TO DRILL ON
U'WA LAND!
OCTOBER 12TH CELEBRATE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE'S DAY WITH ACTION FOR THE
U'WA
Contents :
1. Action Alert - Drilling on U'wa Land Imminent 2. Background
information on the U'wa struggle 3. Sample Letters to Oxy and
Colombian Government
#1.
On September 21st Colombia's Environment Minister Juan Mayr announced
he was granting a permit for Occidental Petroleum to begin
exploratory drilling on the U'wa ancestral homelands. The U'wa have
denounced the government's decision as cultural and environmental
genocide. This permit removes the final legal obstacle to
Occidental's plans to drill and pushes the U'wa one step closer to
their last resort pledge of committing mass suicide.
For several years now the U'wa have been an inspiring symbol of
ecological sanity and indigenous resistance to the oil industry's
relentless invasion of the final remote corners of the planet. The
U'wa have maintained their stand despite harassment, intimidation, a
brutal assault on their spokesperson and the murder of three of their
supporters. A worldwide solidarity movement forced Royal Dutch Shell
to withdraw from the project and has stalled the efforts of LA-based
Occidental Petroleum to begin drilling. Until now. With approval
from the Colombian government drilling on U'wa land is imminent. A
global solidarity movement is needed to pressure the Colombian
government and Occidental to cancel the project.
In Colombia where a 30 year civil war has claimed the lives of 25,000
people this decade alone, oil and violence spread hand in hand. Oil
installations are popular targets for the guerillas and as such bring
de facto military occupations along with the inevitable ecological
devastation from ongoing bombing. For the U'wa oil is the blood of
Mother Earth and therefore to drill is the ultimate desecration of
their ancient traditions of living in peaceful balance with the
Earth.
The U'wa remain strong in their determination to protect their
culture and sacred homelands but they need your help.
HERE ARE WAYS THAT YOU CAN GET INVOLVED :
1)CONTACT OCCIDENTAL AND THE COLOMBIAN GOVERNMENT (See sample letters
below)
Dr. Ray R. Irani, President and CEO
Occidental Petroleum
10889 Wilshire Blv.
LA, CA 90024
fax 310.443.6690
ph. 310.208.8800
email : +Los_Angeles-Communications@oxy.com
Presidente Andres Pastrana
Casa Presidencial
Bogota, Colombia
fax +571.334.1940 (direct) or 202.387.0176 (c/o Embassy in Washington
D.C.) phone (Embassy in D.C.) 202-332-7476
E-mail: pastrana@gov.co
Environment Minister Juan Mayr can be reached at :
Juan_Mayr_M@Hotmail.Com or
Jmayr@Minamb.Gov.Co
2) ORGANIZE IN YOUR COMMUNITY FOR OCTOBER 12
We need to show Occidental AND the Colombian government that
activists around the world will stand with the U'wa to prevent the
destruction of their culture and homeland . The best way to do this
is to have a strong presence at Colombian consulates and embassies
around the world. If you live near a consulate please call them up
and ask for a meeting with the consul. Organize a vigil,
demonstration or direct action.
Colombian Consulates are in the following North American cities as
well as many national capitals around the world :
Boston, Atlanta, New York, San Francisco, Houston, New Orleans,
Chicago, Miami, Washington D.C. Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and San
Juan, Puerto Rico
If you are not in a city with a Colombian government office :
? Organize fax blasts, phone zaps, a letter writing table
? Screen the 10 minute documentary "The Thin Green Line" on the U'wa
and the murder last March of U'wa Defense Working Group founder Terry
Freitas.
? Organize a teach-in on the threat the U'wa face from fossil fuel
consumption and U.S. sponsered militarism. Connect the issue to the
struggles of indigenous people everywhere to defend their homelands
from resource extraction.
? Reproduce U'wa communiqu,s (available upon request) the background
article below or publish your own article. Write letters to the
editor. Announce the issue at your local activist gathering. Do
whatever you can to spread the story of the U'wa's inspiring
resistance.
Fact sheets and other campaign materials are available on the RAN
website WWW.RAN.ORG
Please call or email for hard copies, additional information and to
coordinate your local actions with other supporters. Contact Patrick
Reinsborough at rags@ran.org or call us at 415-
398-4404 or 1-800-989-RAIN
3) Come to Los Angeles and help staff campaign offices,
organize and plug into local mobilizations targeting Occidental.
Contact RAN's LA office - 310-392-7656 bdoran@envirolink.org
or Amazon Watch - 310-456-1340 asoltani@igc.org
Please take action now.
It is nothing less than a matter of life or death for the U'wa.
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#2.
BACKGROUND ON THE U'WA PEOPLE AND THEIR CAMPAIGN
"We will in no way sell our Mother Earth, to do so would be to give
up our work of collaborating with the spirits to protect the heart of
the world, which sustains and gives life to the rest of the universe,
it would be to go against our own origins, and those of all
existence." - Statement of the U'wa People, August 1998
The U'wa of the Colombian cloud forest are in a life-and-death
struggle to protect their traditional culture and sacred homeland
from an oil project slated to begin on their land at anytime. The
U'wa are adamantly opposed to the drilling and warn that the project
will lead to an increase in violence as seen in other oil regions of
Colombia. Despite this, Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum and
the Colombian government continue to move forward with plans to
drill. The U'wa have made a call for international support; now is
the time for us to answer.
The U'wa's opposition to the oil project is so strong that they have
vowed to commit collective suicide if Occidental Petroleum and the
Colombian government proceed with the project on their ancestral
lands. The U'wa, a traditional people some 5,000 members strong,
explain they prefer a death by their own hand than the slow death to
their environment and culture that oil production will bring. A core
tenet of U'wa culture and spirituality is the belief that the land
that has sustained them for centuries is sacred.
They strongly believe that to permit oil exploration on these sacred
lands would upset the balance of the world. In the words of the U'wa,
"Oil is the blood of Mother Earth...to take the oil is, for us, worse
than killing your own mother. If you kill the Earth, then no one will
live."
The U'wa people's struggle exploded into the public arena last March
with the tragic murders in Colombia of three indigenous rights
activists: Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok and Lahe'ane'e Gay.
Terence was one of the founders of the U'wa Defense Working Group and
had devoted the last two years of his life to supporting the U'wa in
their campaign to stop Occidental's oil project, reclaim their
ancestral homeland and protect their traditional culture. Ingrid and
Lahe'ane'e were coordinating with the U'wa to launch an educational
project designed to maintain and promote the U'wa's traditional way-
of-life.
These murders and the intimidation the U'wa have already persevered
are but a harbinger of the wider physical violence the oil project
will bring to their people. Throughout Colombia, oil and violence are
linked inextricably. Occidental's Ca o Lim>n pipeline, just north of
U'wa territory, has been attacked by leftist guerillas more than 600
times in its 13 years of existence, spilling some 1.7 million barrels
of crude oil into the soil and rivers. The Colombian government has
militarized oil production and pipeline zones, often persecuting
local populations the government assumes are helping the guerrillas.
Oil projects have already taken their toll on many other indigenous
peoples of Colombia, including the Yarique, Kofan and Secoya.
The current drilling plans threaten the survival of both the U'wa and
their environment. The U'wa's cloud forest homeland in the Sierra
Nevada de Cocuy mountains near the Venezuelan border is one of the
most delicate, endangered forest ecosystems on the planet. It is an
area rich in plant and animal life unique to the region, and the U'wa
depend on the balance and bounty of the forest for their survival.
Where oil companies have operated in other regions of the Amazon
basin, cultural decay, toxic pollution, land invasions and massive
deforestation have followed.
Occidental first received an exploration license for the 2 billion
barrels oil field- the equivalent of three months of U.S. consumption
-in 1992. Since then, the U'wa have voiced their consistent
opposition to the oil project. They have taken a variety of actions
to halt the project including the filing of lawsuits against the
government in Colombia, petitioning the Organization of American
States to intervene, appealing directly with Occidental's top
executives, and reaching out to company shareholders.
Last April U'wa representatives came to Los Angeles to directly
confront Occidental. Along with several hundred supporters the U'wa
marched on Oxy's HQ and demanded a meeting with CEO Ray Irani. When
they were refused entry activists occupied the street in front of the
building and held an inspirational rally on Oxy's front steps. Two
days later on April 30th while the U'wa spoke at Occidental's
shareholder meeting there were demonstrations at Colombian consulates
and embassies around the world.
The U.S has very strong ties with Colombia. Not only does Colombia
sell most of its oil to the U.S. market but under the auspices of the
"War on Drugs" U.S. military aid to the repressive regime in Colombia
continues to grow. This year Colombia received $289 million in aid
making them the third largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the
world after Israel and Egypt. The U.S already has hundreds of
military advisors in Colombia and the Clinton administration is
proposing to give Colombia an additional $1.5 billion dollars.
In August the Colombian government expanded the U'wa legal reserve.
However the expansion includes only a portion of the U'wa traditional
territory and most significantly the new borders were drawn in such a
way as to place the sight of Occidental's first drill site just
outside of the reserve boundaries. The Colombian government is
cynically using this bureaucratic slight-of-hand to maintain that
drilling will not happen on U'wa land.
With drilling imminent and in the face of mounting violence in the
region the urgency of the U'wa's struggle has never been so great.
The U'wa need all of us to support them in their struggle. Spread the
word. Tell their story. Educate. Organize. Contact Occidental and the
Colombian government .
Demand they cancel the project now!
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#3.
SAMPLE LETTERS
Dr Ray Irani, President and CEO
Occidental Petroleum Corporation
10889 Wilshire Blvd.,
Los Angeles, CA 90024
or Via fax: (310) 443 6922
Dear Dr. Irani,
I am writing to express my deep concern with Occidental Petroleum's
continued plans to drill for oil in the ancestral territory of the
U'wa people in Colombia. The U'wa have threatened to commit
collective suicide if Occidental moves forward with drilling. For the
sake of the lives and land of the U'wa people and of the peace
process in Colombia, please immediately suspend all operations in the
U'wa ancestral territory.
The U'wa people believe that oil is the blood of mother earth. They
have repeatedly and adamantly explained to your company that they are
utterly opposed to your plans to drill for oil on their sacred
territory. It is time that Oxy accept the full extent of U'wa
traditional territory, as defined by the U'wa themselves and withdraw
from all efforts to drill in the Samore block. Oxy's continuing
failure to suspend operations is in blatant violation of the
recommendations of the 1997 OAS/Harvard report. There is ample
opportunity to support Colombia in building energy self-sufficiency.
We encourage you to do so by canceling your plans to exploit the
Samore region and investing instead in renewable energy options.
The fate of an entire indigenous civilization is in your hands. The
U'wa deserve to live free from the inevitable violence and ecological
devastation that oil drilling will bring. I urge you to look to your
heart and cancel the project. The world is watching and waiting for
you to do the right thing.
Sincerely,
[your name]
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LETTER TO PRESIDENT PASTRANA.
Presidente Andres Pastrana
Casa Presidencial
Bogota, Colombia
Dear Honorable President:
I am deeply troubled to learn that your government has granted
Occidental Petroleum an environmental license for oil exploration at
the Gibraltar 1 drill site which is in the traditional territory of
the U'wa people. As you are aware, the U'wa are adamantly opposed to
any oil activities within their homelands as it poses a serious
threat to their physical and cultural survival . I strongly urge you
to reconsider your government's decision to grant this environmental
license since allowing drilling will cause irreparable harm to the
U'wa people, culture and territory.
Granting a license for drilling on the U'wa's traditional territory -
particularly so close to their legally recognized reserve -
constitutes a grave disregard for their deep spiritual and cultural
ties to their land. Oil drilling will also threaten the U'wa by
escalating conflict in the region. Oil facilities are a magnet for
militarization and attacks by guerrilla factions, which has
catastrophic environmental and social impacts for local communities.
Oxy's Ca o Lim>n pipeline has been bombed more than 600 times over
the last 13 years, with a new attack occurring on average once a
week. You must cancel this project before it leads to a significant
increase in violence against the peaceful U'wa and other local
peoples.
As one of the most biologically diverse countries in the world,
Colombia has much to gain from reorienting current development plans
towards strategies which foster ecological conservation rather than
destruction. By letting the U'wa continue to live undisturbed, you
are making a priceless investment in cultural and biological
diversity for Colombia's future. Now is your opportunity to take a
regional leadership role in developing sustainable, renewable energy
sources, rather than sacrificing ecologically and culturally
sensitive areas to new petroleum exploitation.
International civil society is carefully monitoring the U'wa case.
Your resolution of this delicate situation will either be a critical
step towards promoting indigenous rights and environmental
preservation or will be forever seen as enabling one of the worst in
a long line of human and ecological tragedies. Your leadership in
this important case is anxiously awaited.
Thank you for your concern and action on behalf of the U'wa people
and their traditional territory. I look forward to your response.
Sincerely,
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U'wa Defense Working Group Members:
Amazon Watch, Action Resource Center, Earthjustice Legal Defense
Fund, EarthWays Foundation, International Law Project for Human
Environmental & Economic Defense, Project Underground, Rainforest
Action Network, Sol Communications