U’wa culture’s fate in hands of Occidental corporation

Thursday, May 7, 1998

U’wa culture’s fate in hands of Occidental corporation

LANDRIGHTS: Drilling oil in ancestral lands would obliterate
tribe

By Derrick Hindery

I was recently arrested during a protest at Occidental Petroleum
Corporation (Oxy), a Southern California-based oil corporation with
a record of poor social and environmental conduct. It was my
first-ever act of civil disobedience.

Some know Oxy as the company that attempted to drill on our Los
Angeles coastline and in the Palisades. Others know of Hooker
Chemical, the subsidiary responsible for dumping toxic waste in
Love Canal. This time Occidental is implicated in a controversy
with a Colombian indigenous tribe.

Along with six other protesters, I drove up to Oxy’s
headquarters in Westwood and placed a 23-foot symbolic oil pipeline
in the building entrance. Then, having chained the pipeline to the
doors of the entrance, three of us locked ourselves inside. For the
next two hours, a number of highly-skilled and understanding
firemen carefully cut through the metal and eventually extracted
us.

I did it to bring attention to 5,000 U’wa Indians from the
cloudforest of Colombia who have vowed to commit mass suicide by
walking off a 1,400 foot cliff if Occidental proceeds with its
plans to drill for oil on their ancestral land.

Given the history of oil development in the region, drilling
will bring violence to the U’wa. Oil installations are sites of
conflict between the guerrillas and the Colombian government, and
the nearby Oxy pipeline is a clear example. The pipeline has been
attacked over 500 times in the last 11 years, spilling
approximately 1.7 million barrels of oil (compared to 240,000
barrels from the Exxon Valdez).

The government of Colombia claims to have some of Latin
America’s most progressive legislation on indigenous rights, but
Colombia’s courts contend that the government’s right to develop
its natural resources supersedes the U’wa’s constitutional right to
consultation and defense of their cultural identity.

Underlying the push for oil development is the government’s
struggle to pay off its external debt and its economic policy based
on exports of natural resources. Of course, U.S. demand for oil is
another impetus. Some 63 percent of Colombia’s oil exports end up
in U.S. markets.

In response to the protest, Occidental claims that it plans to
drill outside the U’wa territory. The statement is a carefully
crafted half-truth. What Occidental defines as U’wa territory is
only a small fraction of what the U’wa claim is their ancestral
land. Occidental has conducted seismic exploration on land it
recognizes as U’wa territory. And even today in Bogota, Colombia,
Oxy is making plans to drill on U’wa land.

The U’wa do not wish to die, but Occidental’s plan is forcing
them to choose between suicide and cultural genocide. The U’wa say
they would rather take their own lives than suffer slowly from the
violence and cultural and environmental destruction which will
follow oil development. They insist that their rights to cultural
survival, religious freedom, a healthy environment, and control
over their own development must be recognized and protected, as
they are (in theory) by international law.

The U’wa are asking for: the right to refuse or accept oil
activity on their land; legal title for their full traditional
homeland, as they define it; and the withdrawal of the military
from their area.

Roberto Cobaria, president of the Grand Council, the traditional
U’wa decision-making body, has said, "For us mother Earth is
sacred, is not for violation, exploitation, nor negotiation; it is
to be cared for, to be conserved. For these reasons we can not
permit oil exploration on our traditional territory. Please hear
our request that comes from our ancestral right by virtue of being
born on our territory.

As a concerned individual moved by the struggle of the U’wa, I
feel that we can and must act to prevent a possible human tragedy.
One way concerned citizens of our community can help is to contact
Occidental and request that Oxy respect the lives of the U’wa by
halting its project, and by adopting standards of corporate
responsibility.

Furthermore, letters should be sent to Vice President Al Gore.
His father, Al Gore Sr., sits on the board of directors of
Occidental. Spread the word, and consider cutting your own use of
oil.

For more information, or to find out how you can become involved
in the campaign, please contact Amazon Watch at (310) 456-1340
(http://www.amazonwatch.org) or the U’wa Defense Working Group
(http://www.uwa.moles.org).