Open Letter to Senator McCain about Colombia Visit | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

Open Letter to Senator McCain about Colombia Visit

July 1, 2008 | Campaign Update

1 July 2008

Senator John McCain
241 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

VIA FACSIMILE

Senator McCain,

On the occasion of your visit to Colombia, Amazon Watch would like to draw your attention to several issues of deep concern for human rights in Colombia, and to respectfully urge you to raise these with President Alvaro Uribe.

We are extremely concerned about the negative impacts that the proposed Colombia Trade Promotion Act (FTA) is already having within Colombia. The Uribe administration has pushed through a series of pre-emptive legislative “counter-reforms” in order to lay the groundwork for FTA implementation. These include the National Development Plan, Rural Development Statute, and Forestry Law. According to the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia (ONIC by its Spanish acronym), this legislative framework will significantly weaken the rights of indigenous and other rural communities within Colombia and thus contribute to a possible rise in human rights violations.

The laws also prioritize massive privatization and exploitation of natural resources such as oil, forests, and bio-fuels at the expense of fragile tropical rainforest ecosystems, which will play a key role in any successful international effort to combat climate change. Already, the Forestry Law has been struck down by Colombia’s Constitutional Court on the grounds that it violated international and constitutional standards of due prior consultation with affected local communities. The new laws violate obligations within the FTA on environmental matters, specifically the prohibition of relaxation of national environmental protection standards.

The disregard for indigenous peoples’ rights, by both the Colombian government and illegal armed groups, is an alarming trend throughout the country. The case of the U’wa indigenous people, in the departments of Norte de Santander and Boyacá, is instructive. Since the beginning of this year, U’wa territories have been increasingly militarized, both by illegal armed actors such as the FARC, and by the Colombian army.

Responding to this dangerous militarization, which will likely increase violence and human rights violations committed against U’wa communities, the U’wa themselves have made a public request that all armed actors, whether legal or illegal, immediately leave their territory. Today, in the attached letter, 90 Colombian and international non-governmental organizations and dozens of individuals are expressing their support for the U’wa demand. The letter is being delivered to President Uribe and also distributed through regional media to reach the illegal armed groups.

For more than 15 years, the U’wa have been defending their rights and territories against oil exploration, first against the entry of Occidental Petroleum and today against the state-run company Ecopetrol. We echo the grave concern of the U’wa that oil projects are a magnet and a catalyst for political violence, and often place innocent local communities in the crossfire. This is a historical fact in Colombia. The plight of the U’wa is reflected throughout Colombia, with the nexus of armed conflict and resource extraction directly threatening the wellbeing of indigenous and other rural communities.

On your tour in Colombia, please keep in mind that a diverse coalition of civil society organizations from more than 27 countries are urging Colombian authorities to:

* De-militarize the U’wa indigenous territory;

* Respect the legal rights of indigenous peoples and cease oil exploration and extraction in indigenous territories where the communities have not offered their consent for such activities.

We ask that you join us in raising these issues directly with President Uribe and urge him to avert a potentially tragic armed conflict in U’wa territory.

Sincerely,

Atossa Soltani
Executive Director

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