What: A colorful protest with street theater depicting Vice President Al Gore in bed with Oxy
When: Tuesday, February 1, 2000 – 10:30 am to 12:30 pm
Where: Fess Parker’s Doubletree Resort, 633 E. Cabrillo Blvd, Santa Barbara, California
Who: Activists from Amazon Watch, Increase the Peace – Rainforest Alliance, Action Resource Center, UCSB Environmental Affairs Board, Rainforest Action Network, Santa Barbara Citizens’ Alliance, Allies for Justice, and Santa Barbara Earth First
Santa Barbara, California – A large number of students and environmental activists will gather outside the Doubletree Hotel in Santa Barbara during the World Environment Center’s Conference – sponsored in part by Occidental Petroleum – – to protest the company’s plans to drill for oil on the U’wa tribe’s lands in the Colombian cloud forest. Groups are also calling on Vice President Al Gore to use his deep family and financial ties to Oxy to help save the U’wa. According to Vice President Gore’s 1998 financial disclosure form filed with the Federal Election Commission (available on-line www.opensecrets.org), Gore is the owner of $500,000 in Oxy shares and has received substantial campaign contributions from the company.
The U’wa people who are the legal owners of the land where Occidental plans to drill, are so opposed to the project that they have repeatedly stated they are willing to die defending their land. A semi-nomadic indigenous group of approximately 5,000, the U’wa believe that oil is the blood of mother earth and its exploitation will bring violence and environmental destruction. Last week, at least 500 and as many as several thousand Colombian troops were sent to secure this area so that Occidental can begin drilling. The Colombian Army forcibly evicted the U’wa from their land via helicopters.
“We are appalled that the company that is threatening the U’wa people and their forest homeland in Colombia, is trying to greenwash its image by sponsoring a conference on the environment,” said Hillary Hosta, of Amazon Watch, one of the protest organizers. “We want our so-called environmental Vice President to do the right thing: use his connections to Oxy to avert this tragedy.”
Following the protest, student groups will be hosting a teach-in to educate people about how they can get more involved in this and other issues in their own communities.
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