Bogota, Colombia – In a step a Colombia Indian tribe says spells death for its culture, an American oil company began test drilling on Friday just outside the tribe’s reservation, the state-run oil company announced.
Leaders of the U’wa Indian tribe have protested the Occidental Petroleum Corp. project for years, at one point even threatening a mass suicide should the company be allowed to drill in the area near Colombia’s eastern border with Venezuela.
The 8,000-member U’wa nation has likened oil exploration to draining the “blood of mother earth.” The group also fears that oil exploration close to its home will bring violence. In a statement Friday, the government-run oil company Ecopetrol said Occidental’s project is critical for Colombia’s economy. It could produce 1.4 billion barrels of crude and bring federal and state governments up to $14 billion from contracts with Los Angeles-based Occidental, Ecopetrol said.
There was no immediate reaction from the U’wa, who have staged protests outside the drilling site all year.
Courts cleared the way for the exploratory drilling in May. Occidental originally proposed drilling directly on U’wa lands, but the drill site was moved just outside the group’s officially recognized territory.
U.S.-based environmental and indigenous rights activists have raised the issue in the American presidential campaign, holding protests and urging Vice President Al Gore to divest family stock holdings in Occidental. Green Party candidate Ralph Nader issued a statement Monday urging Occidental to cancel the project.
“The human rights and lives of the U’wa are worth more than the commercial interests of Occidental Petroleum,” Nader said.
Colombia’s armed factions congregate around areas rich in valuable resources, and its 36-year conflict has already spilled over onto U’wa territory. Last year, leftist guerrillas kidnapped and killed three American activists who had come to Colombia to work with the U’wa.
Guerrillas frequently bomb oil pipelines as part of an extortion scheme and to protest foreign “exploitation” of Colombia’s resources. The military stations large numbers of troops at oil installations to protect them from rebel attacks.
