14 Arrested in Tigard Business Protest About 70 People Gather at Fidelity's Office, Objecting to the Company's Investments in Oil Drilling in Colombia
March 11, 2000 | Emily Tsao and Eric Collins | Source: the Oregonian
Tigard - To the beating of red plastic buckets and the chanting of "Stop the drilling; Stop, stop the killing," about 70 people crowded the entrances to the office of Fidelity Investments Friday morning, protesting the company's investment in a Los Angeles-based petroleum company.
Police arrested 14 protesters, who chained themselves inside the office, on accusations of disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. About 40 officers from seven agencies showed up for the protest. The peaceful two-hour event ended with protesters, many of them Lewis & Clark College students, forming a human pyramid.
Organizers said the protesters were from a coalition of organizations interested in protecting land belonging to the U'wa, an indigenous tribe of about 5,000 people in eastern Colombia.
Occidental Petroleum has plans to drill for oil on U'wa land, protesters said. They said the U'wa people had threatened to commit mass suicide if the project took place. Protesters said they wanted Fidelity, which invests millions of dollars in Occidental, to pressure the company into canceling the drilling.
Similar protests have taken place at Fidelity offices in Boston, San Francisco and other cities in recent weeks. Fidelity manages funds for 16 million customers nationwide and has 77 investor centers across the country, according to a company spokesman.
Protesters entered the Fidelity office Friday morning hoping to make a 15-minute presentation. But they said that request was denied. Of the 30 or so protesters who had entered the office, 14 refused to leave.
