Colombian Tribe Steps Up Battle against Occidental | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

Colombian Tribe Steps Up Battle against Occidental

December 13, 2000 | Richard Valdmanis | Reuters

New York – Colombia’s U’Wa Indians, a 5,000-strong tribe fighting to keep Big Oil out of their corner of the rainforest, have stepped up their campaign to bury California energy company Occidental Corp. (NYSE:OXY – news).

U’Wa Chief Roberto Perez this week went to the corporate battleground, visiting the San Francisco offices of investment firm Sanford C. Bernstein, recently acquired by Alliance Capital (NYSE:AC – news), to request it sell its stock in Occidental due to the company’s drilling plans in Northeastern Colombia.

The U’Wa claim the drilling site as their own sacred ancestral land – a claim that has been knocked down repeatedly in Colombia’s courts. Now the tribe has thrown itself at the mercy of corporate America.

“Occidental’s drilling in our ancestral territory runs the risk of destroying the ancient culture of our ancestors that we have carried on from generation to generation,” said Perez in a letter to Sanford Bernstein Chief Executive Roger Hertog. “We demand that you divest entirely from Occidental.”

While the move was expected to carry little sway at Sanford, spokespeople for Perez pointed to a past “victory” in Boston-based Fidelity Investments, which sold off over $400 million in Occidental shares in September, only weeks after the chief visited their offices.

A Fidelity spokesman however said Wednesday the 60 percent divestment in Occidental was “based solely on the merits of the company, and was not connected in any way to the U’Wa campaign,” but the event raised questions over the role of ethics in investing, environmental groups said.

“While it makes sense that investment firms keep their clients as their first priority, we’ve seen a trend emerging: People want socially responsible investors,” said Lauren Sullivan, spokeswoman for environmental group Amazon Watch, which has taken up the U’Wa cause.

“What we’re doing here is to try to bring light to ethical investing practices,” she said.

AVOIDING THE OIL BATTLEFIELD

At the heart of the U’Wa’s stock-battle against Occidental is a small plot of land, dubbed in oil circles as the Gibraltar field.

To Occidental it is an oil prospect. But to the U’Wa it is sacred land, and, more importantly, a buffer from the violence deeply associated with the oil industry in rebel-pocked Colombia.

The country’s best known and second-largest oil pipeline, Cano Limon – which is operated by Occidental, has been bombed by National Liberation Army (NLA) guerrillas over 90 times this year, spilling oceans of crude oil over the jungle floor.

Meanwhile, there are reports of constant rebel fighting, much of it centered around U.S. involvement in the oil industry.

“We don’t want our people in the middle of this fighting, and we don’t want to put our way of life at risk,” Perez told Reuters during a visit to New York City this summer. “This is why we will not stop until Occidental leaves.”

But Occidental has no plans to do that.

“The campaign of various activists, most of them centered in the U.S., has had absolutely no impact,” said an Occidental spokesman. “The work is going on in Colombia. The issue with respect to the U’Wa has been addressed by the Colombian government.”

In 1999, the Colombian government expanded U’Wa territory from 268 square miles to 850 square miles (694 to 2,200 square km), an area roughly two-thirds the size of Rhode Island in the U.S.

“The U’Wa have become the largest per capita landowners in Colombia,” said the Occidental spokesman. “They are taken care of.”

Colombian courts have also denied attempts to revoke Occidental’s drilling permits on its leases.

Occidental began drilling at the Gibraltar 1 test well in early November, after months of delay due to U’Wa court battles, with results expected in the coming months.

By government estimates, the field holds potential reserves of 1.4 billion barrels of crude oil.

The U’Wa say they will continue to fight in the courts to overturn findings that the well lies just outside the legal limits of the tribe’s reservation.

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