Cubará – Boyacá, Colombia – The millennial and historic U’wa Indigenous People of Colombia situated in the departments of Casanare, Arauca, Boyacá, Santander and Norte de Santander, through this statement would like to express thanks from our hearts for the total and unconditional support that we have received from the following national and international organizations in defense of life, culture and the environment.
National Organizations: Social Sectors and la Junta de Personeros from the department of Arauca; of Cubará, Guicán, Sogamoso, Tunja in Boyacá; from the areas of Gibraltar and Samoré, Toledo local authority in Norte de Santander; Bucaramanga in Santander; Censat Agua Viva, Siempre Viva, Bacata Comité Colombia es U´wa, Organización Nacional Indígena de Colombia-ONIC, Colectivo de Abogado José Alvear Restrepo, Minga; Comisión Colombiana de Juristas, students of the Universidad Nacional, la Defensoria del Pueblo in Bogotá, Ecos Hijos de la Tierra in Calí. The magistrate Ciro Angarita Q.E.P.D., indigenous senators Lorenzo Muelas, Jesús Enrique Pinacue, Francisco Rojas Birry, Alegría Fonseca in Colombia.
International Organizations: Proyecto Subsuelo, Justicia para la Tierra, Goldman Environmental Foundation, Abya Yala, Amazon Watch, Oil Watch, Amazon Coalition, Pacha Mama, Amazon Alliance, Green Space, Rainforest Action Network, Rainforest Foundation, Cultural Survival Conservancy, Menominee Community, family and friends of Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok, and Lahenae Gay from the United States; Watu and, the Prince of Asturias in Spain; Proyecto Norte Sur and Alan Cassani in Geneva; Vía Campesina, Derechos Humanos Daniel D’Gillard, Paul Emil and his wide, the European Parliament, in Belgium; Ana Vivas, France Liberté, in Paris, the city of Valencia and José Bove in France; Basta Ya in Germany; The Italian Green Party, the local authorities of Bari, Toscana, Masa, Roma, the Universities in Italy; Acción Global de Los Pueblos in Holland; indigenous communities of Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Bolivia in South America; Mexico, Guatemala, San José de Costa Rica en Central America, Finland etc.
We want to thank all of these people and organizations and others that we didn’t have present in our memories who contributed in a direct and indirect way and we recognize with all our heart and spirit the total and unconditional support that we received in the most difficult moments of this process of defending culture, territory and autonomy. Since 1996 when our brother Terence Freitas arrived in our territory, we were given the spiritual strength and shown the path along which the U’wa Peoples should walk in their fight against the diabolical multinational oil company
Occidental of Colombia OXY that came and violated our most sacred right:
“Violation of the sacred body of our mother earth,” their stabbing was felt some feet (12,500) below the earth’s surface and she cried. She asked us to defend her and to tell the world what she was feeling. We did that and we will continue to do that. This is only known by the U’wa people and our allies because of our permanent contact with her.
Our cultural principles include the defense of the right to a dignified life, respect for mother earth and the environment, essential and sacred elements that we should leave as an inheritance to our children, grandchildren and their descendents. We want to thank all for their moral, spiritual, human and economic support, particularly our friends near to our lands such as the social sectors of the department of Arauca who once again felt state violence. However, convinced of our just and noble cause, they accompanied us at all times day after day, night after night, they were always by our side sharing difficult moments, seeing and feeling the contempt of the company and those enemies of life and the environment who attacked not only the life of Terence, Ingrid and Lahena’e, but also the source of life, “mother earth.”
Today we invite all of our brother and sister children of the earth to tell the world that mother earth is alive, that the U’wa are alive, that the coming together of many voices, hands, cries, writings, meditation, feet, thoughts etc make people free from aggressors and destroyers.
We also want to remember the deaths of our leaders who gave their lives for the defense of the world’s life, our U’wa and Guahibo children who lost their lives defending during brutal operations of the security forces as they went ahead with the eviction of our lands, all to fulfill the strict orders of the invading oil company OXY and the Colombian government. They went down on their knees for outside interests and took homes from us, the homeowners, and denied us our clear rights. “THE MONEY KING, ‘DEATH AND DESTRUCTION’ SHOULD RULE OVER LIFE,” that’s what enemies of life think.
We insist that our protests, demonstrations and other actions were carried out to demand our legitimate rights as established in national and international laws, and for that reason anyone who attacks this should be reprimanded and removed from their job. We will continue to demand punishment for those responsible. In particular, we want to condemn one more time the actions and omissions of the Minister of the Environment Juan Mayr Maldonado and his followers who came to our lands and deceived us, always behaving in bad faith. They handed over to us a Resolución de Resguardo (Land Rights Resolution) and then gave OXY an environmental license to begin their assault on the U’wa People. But the saddest thing is that he said he was a friend of nature, mother earth, Indians, and the question is: Which Indians?
We want to remind our friends and brothers and sisters around the world that our fight continues, that the government should return lands that they took through violence, cancel all oil, mining, and environmental projects, immediately hand over the sum of $18.000’000.000 (Colombian pesos) the cost of land titling for the United U’wa Reserve, compensate us for the death of our children and leaders, compensate the families of the three supporters of indigenous rights that gave their lives to defend our legitimate rights, and the social sectors for their human, moral and economic losses. The U’wa will show the government that we are dignified and fair, that we are not asking for anything that isn’t ours, that mother earth and her children are sacred.
We all belong to the divine creation SIRA and as such we deserve respect. Mother earth, despite being violated, silently continues feeding us, sustaining us. She doesn’t feel envy. She talks but very few listen to her voice. She insists through cries but everything continues the same. This worries us, but we the U’wa and friends of the U’wa of Colombia and the World will continue to defend her with our voice, our sacred fasts, our songs, our faith.
Our brothers and sisters, the air, water, sun, moon are contaminated and they are being destroyed. This too worries us because if humanity wants to continue to live we should start to take decisions to prevent our self-destruction. No one destroys man. Man destroys himself. We want to continue reflecting to avoid the destruction of the world because the U’wa want to continue to live.
The money king is only an illusion. Capitalism is blind and barbaric. It buys consciences, governments, peoples, and nations. It poisons the water and the air. It destroys everything. And to the U’wa, it says that we are crazy, but we want to continue being crazy if it means we can continue to exist on our dear mother EARTH.
The government should recognize that we are people who are part of that word “State.” It should respect our forms of life, our thinking, our laws of origin and of our elders. It should respect universal human rights and international treaties because we are people – we too feel.
Brother and sisters of the world, the U’wa will continue defending mother earth. We invite you to continue accompanying us. Thank you for believing in us.
A special greeting to Kevin, Atossa, Leslie, Abby, Elizabeth, Ana Maria, Martín, David, Shannon, Giussepe, Carlos deocon, Alan, Paola, Laura, Patricia Borraz.
