From Piglet to Firing Squad . . . or the Ignorance of the International Community | Amazon Watch
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From Piglet to Firing Squad . . . or the Ignorance of the International Community

February 1, 2000 | Luis Ortiz | Oilwatch

A few years ago, one afternoon while it was raining in Chuscal (U’wa territory), a U’wa woman from a family of the Tegria told us about their first contact with the multinational oil company Oxy. “People arrived from the Indian Affairs Office of the Government to tell us that some people from the capital had arrived and were wanting to speak with us and were inviting us to go to Saravena. They put us into some buses for all of the country folk that wanted to go, I don’t remember if it was three or four buses, but they were all full. If they would have taken us one by one we would not have gone there, but since we were so numerous we went with much curiosity to see what it was all about. We were there for three days. The first day I will never forget for my entire life. We arrived at the hotel and when we entered there was a table around 100 meters long, all white and full of food, I have never seen so much food together and so delicious. We remained paralized not knowing whether it was actually true what we were seeing… Soon we gained our appetite and ate, some slowly, for fear that at any moment we would be yelled at and be forced to run away, while others filled their bellies and their bags… just in case. But nothing happened. They let us eat everything and later took us to a patio at the back of the hotel where they had piglets and they told us to pick out the ones we wanted and if there weren’t enough that they would bring more. And at this moment all the country folk rushed to get their piglets, we were all very happy since with one piglet, one can raise it and when it is big one can sell it and buy other piglets in order to raise them as well.

The next day the woman from Indian Affairs got us together in a salon and presented to us the gentlemen that had given us all of these things and that wished to speak with us. They told us that they wanted to help us so that we would always have food, but that we would have to let them remove oil, they explained to us that the earth would remain the same as before, that we could continue to cultivate our fields and that we could still keep cattle. The only thing that they needed was that we give them our permission. No one spoke, we all looked at each other and finally began to to discuss amongst ourselves in our own language, U’wa. When we finally told them that we did not want to take out the oil because it is the blood of mother earth, they said: Think about it. Your answer is not to our liking. . . We will talk tomorrow.

That night there was less food. At this point the country folk became fearful that they were going to take away the piglets so each one as they could got rope to make sure they would not get away.

On the third day, they wished us goodbye and asked us to think about it and to talk with the woman from Indian Affairs to let them remove the oil. That they wanted to help us and so that we would believe them they let us keep the piglets. For us this land is sacred and we will not allow them to remove the blood of mother earth, we want them to respect us.

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