Escalating a campaign questioning Vice President Al Gore’s environmental commitment, environmental organizations today placed a full-page ad in the west coast edition of the New York Times. The ad, whose headline reads “Who is Al Gore? Environmental Champion or Petroleum Politician? The U’wa people need to know” substantiates Gore’s connections to Occidental Petroleum and argues that the Vice President has a specific responsibility to act on behalf of the U’wa people.
The U’wa, a remote Colombian tribe, are engaged in a tense standoff with Los-Angeles based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) over the drilling of the Gibraltar 1 oil well. The U’wa, a deeply spiritual people who believe that oil is the “blood of Mother Earth”, have repeatedly stated that they “are willing to die” to keep oil drilling off of their ancestral lands. More than 2,500 local farmers, union members, and students have joined thousands of U’wa and other indigenous peoples in non-violent blockades and protests near the well site to stop Oxy’s project. The heavy military presence around the oil project has already led to violence against peaceful indigenous peoples. In the last month, many have been injured and at least three have died. The situation remains very tense.
Gore has enjoyed the corporate sponsorship of Oxy throughout his political career. He controls up to $500,000 in Oxy stocks and has received $20,000 a year for almost 30 years from mining rights to his land that Oxy never mined. Gore’s father made a great deal of his wealth while working for Oxy and its ex-chairman, Armand Hammer. Gore Sr. sat on the Board of Oxy for twenty-eight years. Since Gore was elected Vice President, Oxy Chairman Ray Irani has given more than $400,000 to the Democratic Party. Furthermore, Gore’s “reinventing government” initiative resulted in the sale of the Elk Hills Naval Petroleum Reserve to Occidental in 1998. The unprecedented closed bidding process was the largest privatization of federal property in U.S. history, one that tripled Occidental’s U.S. oil reserves overnight.
Environmental and human rights leaders have been attempting to direct the Vice President’s attention to this issue for years. In March 1998, the Amazon Coalition wrote the Vice President on this issue requesting his assistance. There was no reply. A month later a full-page ad in the New York Times generated hundreds of letters to Gore. Gore also met briefly with the spokesman for the U’wa people, Berito Kuwaru’wa, after the Indian chief received the 1998 Goldman Environmental Prize. Despite repeated attempts, Gore has consistently ducked the issue by attempting to both deny his connections to Oxy and claim political impotence.
In January, grassroots environmental activists from around the country began targeting Gore at his campaign appearances. Eight were arrested at a sit-in at Gore’s campaign headquarters over the U’wa issue in Manchester, New Hampshire. The Democratic debate at the Apollo Theatre was briefly interrupted by protesters, and in Olympia Washington, U’wa supporters reportedly drowned out Gore supporters. Just Saturday, activists in Boston disrupted yet another campaign rally. In all, organizers estimate that at least twenty-five campaign appearances over the last 6 weeks have been marred by protests around the U’wa issue. Activists continue to demand that Gore take action that results in an immediate suspension of Oxy’s project, and a significant reduction of tension on the ground.
“Neither we, nor the U’wa, are going to go away”, said Steve Kretzmann of Amazon Watch. “As a professed champion of the environment, Gore has a general moral obligation to take action in defense of the U’wa and their homeland. More importantly, as someone with deep ties and access to Occidental, Gore clearly has a specific duty to take action in this case. We won’t accept the excuse that he’s powerless to stop this situation. As Vice President of the United States, he has the power to make a difference”.
For a copy of the ad, download the PDF version and view with Acrobat Reader.
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