B-roll on the U’wa Situation available via satellite feed On Galaxy 6,
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for info call: Dana Polk or Kasia Grisso, 415-255-1946
What: Environmental leaders rally at Fidelity Investments
When: TODAY, Thursday, February 3, 2000, 11:30 AM to 1:00 PM
Where: Fidelity Investment Center, 10100 Little Santa Monica Blvd., Century City
Who: Human rights and environmental activists from Action Resource Center and Amazon Watch
Los Angeles, CA — Environmental and human rights leaders will converge at the Century City office of Fidelity Investment on Thursday, February 3. Groups urging Fidelity to pressure Occidental Petroleum to cancel drilling on land in Colombia that is sacred to the U’wa people. Fidelity controls more than 30 million shares of Occidental, representing $700 million. If Fidelity refuses to pressure Occidental, activists around the world will begin a protest campaign asking investors to withdraw their savings and investments from Fidelity.
“Funds from Fidelity will be used to drill on U’wa land against the tribes will and pollute tropical forests,” said Brett Doran of Action Resource Center. “As of one of the major owners of Occidental Petroleum, Fidelity Investments can follow its pledge to ‘invest responsibly’ and take action to prevent the drilling.”
“We are alarmed and concerned by the military operation underway on U’wa land,” said Atossa Soltani of Amazon Watch. “We urge Fidelity to act immediately to protect the U’wa and their public image.”
Occidental brought in the Colombian military to evict the U’wa on January 25, to clear the way for a major oil drilling operation. The U’wa consider the area, which includes intact, endangered Andean cloudforests, to be sacred and are legally the owners of the land. They have been fighting Occidental for eight years because they fear the project will bring the same environmental destruction and violence that oil drilling has brought to other regions in Colombia. The U’wa were evicted from the site, known as Gibralter 1, by army helicopters. Oxy has since brought in large trucks and road building equipment.
“With oil operations comes destruction,” said Roberto Afanador Cobaria, spokesperson for the U’wa people, “Each area of the forest that has been developed for oil has paved the way for civil war battles, causing great violence against people and our Mother Earth.”
Demonstrations are planned at three other Fidelity offices in Los Angeles and at Fidelity offices in New York, Denver, Chicago, San Francisco, Toyko, London, Prague, Amsterdam and Tel Aviv. For information on these events, contact Shannon Wright at 415-398-4404.
