Colombian Indians Seize Oil Wells on Their Ancestral Homelands
11/21/99
OVERVIEW & COMMENTARY
200 U'wa Indians, including women, children and tribal elders, have
occupied Occidental Petroleum's planned oil well in Colombia. They
have established a permanent settlement to block the drilling slated
to begin in the coming weeks. "The U'wa cannot allow drilling on
their ancestral lands as they believe that oil is the blood of the
Earth." Aggressive and dominating Western cultures, most lately
represented by their corporations, possess a marked lack of
connection with the sacredness of the Earth. It is killing the
Planet.
g.b.
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ITEM #1
Title: U'wa occupy oxy site
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 17, 1999
Byline: Karl Penhaul
BOGOTA, Nov 17 (Reuters) - Militant Colombian Indians have seized an
area they claim as ancestral homelands to prevent a U.S.
multinational from drilling for oil and pledged Wednesday to "defend
Mother Earth to the death".
Some 200 U'wa Indians occupied late Tuesday the Gibraltar-1 test site
in the Samore block in northeast Colombia.
The 500,000 acre (209,000 hectare) exploration area is tipped to
harbor up to 2.5 billion barrels of crude and could ensure the
country's energy needs well into the next century.
Occidental Petroleum Corp won approval in late September to
begin drilling for crude there after a seven-year legal wrangle over
indigenous land rights blocked work.
But in a strongly-worded communique issued Wednesday, Roberto Perez,
head of the 5,000-strong U'wa community, called for Occidental and
the government to shelve the plan for good.
"We demand that the government and Occidental leave us in peace and
cancel the project for oil drilling in this zone," Perez said.
"The U'wa people are committed to give their lives to defend Mother
Earth from this project which would destroy our culture, nature and
world balance," he
added.
Perez did not spell out what measures the U'wa were prepared to take
but the community has, in the past, threatened to commit mass suicide
if the oil industry encroached on what it considered ancestral lands.
Occidental's planned Gibraltar-1 test site lies just outside the
government-recognized Indian reservation but inside an area that the
U'wa claim as traditional tribal homelands.
In August, the government enlarged the U'was' official reservation
almost fivefold to 543,000 acres (220,000 hectares). But the U'was,
whose semi-nomadic ancestors roamed across the cloud forests and
plains of at least three provinces
in northeast and central Colombia, demand rights to a much larger
territory.
Shannon Wright, spokeswoman for the U.S.-based Rainforest Action
Network, said Wednesday that more U'wa Indians could pour into the
area around Gibraltar-1.
International activists, grouped under the banner of the California-
based U'wa Defense Working group, are also planning to join the
protest.
Earlier this year, three American indigenous activisists were
brutally murdered by leftist rebels as they worked with the U'was to
help prevent Occidental encroaching on Indian lands.
"The U'wa are at a critical juncture. Everything is calm right now
but given that oil areas are the center of violent conflict there is
significant concern that the U'wa could be caught in the crossfire
(as a result of their protest)," Shannon told Reuters.
An Occidental spokesman said the company was still evaluating the
impact of the U'wa land occupation and declined to speculate on the
possible consequences of the protest.
He said the U.S. multinational, which operates the 130,000 barrel-
per-day Cano Limon field in northeast Arauca province, planned to
sink the first test drill in Samore "sometime next year".
The first exploration well is expected to be some 14,000 feet deep
and cost some $30 million.
((--Bogota newsroom (571) 634 4090, bogota.newsroom@reuters.com))
ITEM #2
Title: 200 U'WA ASSEMBLE AT OXY OIL WELL SITE TO BLOCK DRILLING
TRIBE CALLS FOR INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT TO STOP THE OIL
PROJECT
Source: Rainforest Action Network and U'wa Defense Working group
Contacts:
Mark Westlund -- 415-398-4404
Atossa Soltani -- 310-456-1340
David Rothschild -- 202-785-3334
U'wa office in Colombia +5778-838-037
or addition contact numbers in Colombia call above listed
numbers
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 17, 1999
For immediate release
Bogota, Colombia -- 200 U'wa Indians, including women, children and
tribal elders marched on the site of Occidental Petroleum's planned
oil well Gibraltar 1, establishing a permanent settlement to block
the drilling slated to begin in the coming weeks. Hundreds of
additional U'wa are expected to continue arriving to the settlement
in upcoming days. Tribal leaders declared that this permanent
settlement is a necessary to block the drilling after legal battles
and direct appeals to the company and government have failed to date.
Oxy's entire oil block falls within the U'wa's ancestral territory.
The U'wa, a traditional tribe of some 5,000 people living in the
cloudforests of northeastern Colombia have repeatedly declared their
absolute opposition to Oxy's oil project. The U'wa cannot allow
drilling on their ancestral lands as they believe that oil is the
blood of the Earth. The oil project is widely expected to escalate
conflicts in the region among the armed factions, resulting in
violence against the U'wa, as seen in other oil areas of Colombia.
Despite this, in September the Colombian Minister of the Environment
approve a drilling license for the first exploratory well.
"We are willing to have the government bomb us, but we will not
abandon these ancestral lands because we must stop Oxy from drilling
for oil, which is the blood of our Mother Earth," U'wa international
spokesperon Berito Kuwaru'wa, declared from the U'wa settlement at
Gibraltar.
Today, in the Colombian capital of Bogota, 25 U'wa representatives
including Tribal Council president Roberto Perez marched on the
Ministry of the Environment, calling for Colombian and international
support at this critical moment in their campaign. In the communiqu,
that follows, the U'wa make an urgent appeal to their supporters to
join them in solidarity at the settlement during this non-violent
stand to defend their culture, land and lives.
For more information on the U'wa and their campaign please see:
www.ran.org, www.amazonwatch.org, www.moles.org
Here is a communique from the U'wa:
Association of U'wa Traditional Authorities
November 17, 1999
Cubar , Colombia
COMMUNIQU TO THE INTERNATIONAL PUBLIC
Approximately 200 members of the U'wa indigenous tribe of
northeastern Colombia assembled in a permanent settlement on part of
our ancestral lands yesterday, November 16. This area, which has been
colonized by farmers, is the site where the multinational company
Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) wants to drill the oil well "Gibraltar 1,"
an action which threatens life and our ancient culture.
With this permanent presence and with the support of the local
farmers of Sarare, we are claiming our ancestral and constitutional
rights to life and to our traditional territory. We demand that the
Colombian government and Oxy leave us in peace and that once and for
all they cancel the oil project in this area. We U'wa people are
willing to give their lives to defend Mother Earth from this project
which will annihilate our culture, destroy nature, and upset the
world's equilibrium. Caring for the Earth and the welfare of our
children and of future generations is not only the responsibility of
the U'wa people but of the entire national and international society.
We reject the violence perpetrated by the armed actors in the region.
We also urge indigenous peoples worldwide, national and international
non-governmental organizations, and the general public to work in
solidarity with us, rejecting this project planned by the Colombian
government and Oxy. We urgently request that you support us with your
physical presence in our territory. In addition, we ask people
around the world who value the Earth and indigenous peoples to speak
out against the multinational oil company Oxy through protests,
letters and other actions of solidarity.
Signed,
Roberto Perez, President of Tribal Council U'wa Traditional
Authorities