Washington, DC – An international coalition of environmental and human rights leaders condemned Colombian President Andrés Pastrana today for his decision to grant the Los-Angeles based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) permission to proceed with oil drilling on U’wa tribal lands. The U’wa – a peaceful semi-nomadic tribe of 5,000 – adamantly oppose oil exploration on their land because of the central role that oil installations play in Colombia’s civil war. The U’wa also oppose oil drilling because of their spiritual connection to the land and the ecological destruction that oil exploitation will bring, and have previously threatened mass suicide if their demands are not met. Pastrana is currently visiting the U.S. to request increased military aid to Colombia.
In a statement last month, U’wa President Roberto Perez made clear that the U’wa did not consider that the recent granting of land title resolves their concern regarding the oil project in their traditional territory: “As we recover part of our territory, we request absolute respect for our position not to allow any oil exploration or production on our traditional lands either inside or outside the territory that has been legally recognized as ours.” All of Occidental’s Samoré oil concessions fall within traditional U’wa territory.
Last month, the Colombian government granted the U’wa legal title to a portion of their ancestral land. However the drilling site was excluded from this land grant. Today’s license gives Oxy the green light to drill its first well, “Gibraltar 1,” just outside the boundaries of the new U’wa reserve but within traditional tribal lands the U’wa hold sacred.
“We strongly condemn the Colombian Government for granting this license and call on Oxy to withdraw from the project”, said Steve Kretzmann, spokesperson for the U’wa Defense Working Group. “Drilling at this site will only escalate the cycle of violence and the armed conflict in the region, which will certainly result in the death of many U’wa and other local peoples. We warn Oxy that we hold the corporation directly responsible for the lives and safety of the U’wa people.”
Earlier this month, an international alliance of more than 100 organizations from 24 countries sent a joint letter to Colombian Environment Minister, Juan Mayr, urging him to reject Occidental’s license. The letter, which included prominent signatories such as the Sierra Club, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Oilwatch, Environmental Defense Fund, and over a dozen Colombian organizations, cited serious environmental and social impacts as grounds for denying the oil license. International protest is expected to escalate while the U’wa and their support organizations prepare to take legal action to stop the drilling. For a print ready map of the U’wa territory and Samoré block, see www.amazonwatch.org/uwamap.pdf. Contacts: Atossa Soltani 310-455-0617 or David Rothschild 202-785-3334. Background Information is available on http://www.ran.org/.
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U’WA DEFENSE WORKING GROUP is endorsed by the following organizations:
Action Resource Center, Amazon Watch, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, EarthWays Foundation, Indigenous Environmental Network, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, Sol Communications, U’wa Defense Project, International Law Project for Human Environmental and Economic Defense.
