The U’wa Community represented by the U’wa Grand Council and the U’wa
Traditional Authority, addresses the difficulties faced by our Sarare
region that is partly Our Ancestral Territory established by our Highest
Colonial Letters.
We express our voice of protest and rejection before the national and
international community against the actions of Armed Actors that
destabilize the normal development of rural and indigenous communities
and that in some way affect our way of life and integrity. The
aforesaid permits our support of the mobilization, in a healthy manner,
taking place in the Tame municipality of Aruaca, to make the demands
made by the mobilized communities understood, since the Colombian people
make most of the sacrifices in every sense of the word, and also demand
the Colombian State that it must listen to the outcry of the Sarare and
Arauca communities which is also the feeling of the Colombian People,
our non-U’wa brothers from the
outside world (Riowa).
The United States is also financing Plan Colombia, the struggle against
drug trafficking, which signifies the increase of violence in the
department of Arauca, Boyacá and North of Santander and Our Ancestral
Territory, assigning US $98 million to protect the Caño Limón Pipeline
in Coveña, solely for having found oil in the Capachos 1 well without
seeing that what Colombia needs is more investment in social, health,
education and employment programs, so that we can live in Peace.
For the U’wa People it is fundamental that the Ancestral and Traditional
Territories are respected and conserved with a socio-cultural vision,
since these give us our daily sustenance and maintenance of all living
beings.
The U’wa People and the inhabitants of the Sarare region wish to live in
harmony with nature and within a tranquil space. The territories of
Indigenous Peoples are territories of Peace. The government and
petroleum multinationals are the first responsible for the social and
environmental problem in the Arauca and base of the mountain region, and
in second place are the actors of the armed conflict, for the dynamiting
actions against the Oil pipeline that cause the contamination of water,
pastoral areas and watershed basins of the Arauca River. These actions
are affecting climatic changes and the basic sustenance of our
communities. We have the right to freedom of expression and thought.
But it is the actors of the conflict that drive the country into wars
that have no reason to exist. At each step they leave havoc, misery,
and the gravest thing is that they attack LIFE. These actions are on
occasion unjustified and bring destruction to individuals who are the
least implicated; which hurt the communities which have suffered and are
the most needed in the Country.
In addition, and taking advantage of this space, we want to reiterate
one more time for public opinion, to Ecopetrol, the Colombian
Government, Multinationals, and especially to Occidental of Colombia,
that we will never step back from the process of territorial defense,
and neither will we change our cultural principles as it is clear that
cultures with principles have no price, which means that we will not
permit oil exploration or development in our sacred territory, this is a
position and thought that surges from our ancestral millenary law and
our cultural principles. And if oil was found in the Capacho sector and
they plan to export it, they are violating the rights of our ancestors
and our mother earth, which belongs to
all who live in This beautiful Blue planet.
IN DEFENSE OF OUR CULTURAL RIGHTS, OUR MOTHER EARTH AND THE SOVEREIGNTY
OF OUR ANCESTRAL TERRITORY.
U’WA PEOPLE PRESENTE!
