We, the U’wa, write to you once more to express our worry over the operations your company continues to move forward on our sacred territory “KERA CHIKARA” through the GIBRALTAR AREA Petroleum Exploration Project, in the town of Cedeño, hamlet of Gibraltar, municipality of Toledo, department of Norte de Santander. Ever since 1994, when our people learned of the petroleum project, we have opposed its execution as it will destroy our healthy environment, violate our sacred territory and desacrates our ancestral laws.
Ladies and gentlemen, all of you have an historic debt with your compatriots, especially with the family and friends of martyrs TERENCE FREITAS, INGRID WASHINAWATOCK, and LAHE’ENA’E GAY, who were ignobly killed by enemies of life.
Moreover, it is good to be aware that this project has meant the mobilization of students, professors, campesinos, indigenous peoples, union leaders, workers, academics and members of various NGOs, on both a national and international level. All of them are convinced that this petroleum project is violating the human rights and the sacred ancestral laws of our people, who across the millennia have inhabited this territory. They understand that our cause is legitimate, that the defense of life is our noble purpose, that if we do not take care of the healthy environment, we have nothing to leave as inheritance to our successors. In addition, it is good to emphasize that if the company, Occidental de Colombia Inc., does not leave our territory, the U’wa people will be obligated to hold the company responsible for the history of the death of our culture, as it is right now our objective to publicly condemn the company’s operations. The millennial history of our existence as a tribe gives us sufficient right and reason to demand of all of you that you cancel this petroleum project.
All of you owners and administrators of Occidental Petroleum Company have invaded our sacred territory, violating our ancestral laws, and have systematically initiated the collective homicide of our tribe. It did not end with the sacrifice of your compatriots, because even today the U’wa territory is an area of violence. We have three children dead as a result of the direct action of military force, and you continue to remain in our territory. The Colombian government creates judicial and military conditions so that this company can continue to freely operate. For us, there is no law, there is no justice, there are no brothers to defend us…
Finally, we want to tell you that the U’wa people are not going to cede our rights, that we are prepared to continue traveling the world to tell our friends, friends of life and the environment, that you continue in our territory, that you continue destroying our home and violating our ancestral laws, that you are interested more in money than the life of a millennial culture, a people with an identity, that you and the Colombian government operate with military force, that death is the shield of your projects and that the inheritance that you will leave to your heirs will be an agonizing and contaminated world.
Ladies and gentlemen, respectfully, we ask once more in earnest that you understand our preoccupation in maintaining Mother Nature, the life that covers the planet Earth, in equilibrium, and for the respect of a sovereign nation like our U’wa tribe. The reasons here exposed give us the strength to make the following request: leave our sacred territory and our country, because your operations in Colombia have generated violence and among that violence our three North American brothers were victims of this sponsorship. We do not want any more violence.
The U’wa will not forget our three indigenous brothers, our dead children, the insults and the physical maltreatment of our leaders and because of this the cultural roots of our people will defend us, as they will endure as long as life upon the planet Earth is possible.
Cubará, April 16, 2001.
ROBERTO PÉREZ GUTIÉRREZ
Presidente Cabildo Mayor
Asociación de Autoridades Tradicionales U’wa
