San Francisco; Los Angeles – Al Gore ‘flashers’ made surprise visits to Gore campaign offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles to expose the truth behind the vice president’s ties to Occidental Petroleum and the company’s assault on the rights of the U’wa people of Colombia. Meanwhile, protests were underway at twenty Gore offices across the country today, with events ranging from an all-day vigil in Seattle to a banner hang in Portland, Maine.
The ‘flashers’, donning Al Gore masks and big Occidental Petroleum logos on their chests, exposed Al Gore’s controversial ties to the US-based oil company that is preparing to drill on the U’wa people’s sacred lands in the Colombian cloudforest. Mr. Gore has deep personal and financial ties to Occidental, including family investments of up to $1 million in the company.
The U’wa, a traditional tribe of some 5,000 people living in the cloudforests of northeastern Colombia, are adamantly opposed to the planned oil project on their traditional territory and have waged an eight-year, non-violent campaign to block the drilling and protect the region’s fragile environment.
For years the U’wa have warned that if the oil project goes forward the area will become yet another center of violent conflict between the military, paramilitaries and guerilla factions in the country’s three decade-long civil war. The U’wa also fear the environmental devastation like that delivered by Occidental’s nearby Cano Limon oil pipeline which this year alone has spilled more than half of the Exxon Valdez spill, according to Reuters. This last week Occidental moved drilling equipment into place and is preparing to begin work at anytime.
Meanwhile, the threat of violence against the peaceful U’wa is growing. U’wa leaders have recently reported that the Colombian military has planted land mines on U’wa territory to protect Occidental’s project, and that the military has begun shooting at U’wa farms from aircraft circling the drilling area as an intimidation tactic against the peaceful tribe.
To date, Mr. Gore—who stands to benefit economically from an oil find on U’wa land – has taken no action to stop the project that is widely expected to result in environmental damage and human rights violations.
For more information on the U’wa people’s campaign and Al Gore please visit:
ww.amazonwatch.org – www.arcweb.org – www.moles.org – www.ran.org
