Press Releases

Day 2 - Indigenous Peoples Blockade International Highway In Protest of Guri Electrical Line

El Dorado, Venezuela - The Indigenous Federation of Bolivar State reported that since 6:00 am, Monday morning, July 27, more than 800 members of the Indigenous communities of Imataca rainforest and the Grand Savanna have been blockading the International road that connects southern Venezuela to Brazil.

U’wa Tribal Leader to Attend Occidental’s Annual Meeting Press Conference and Native Prayer Circle outside the Shareholder Meeting

Santa Monica, CA - An U’wa tribal leader has traveled to Los Angeles from the rainforest of Colombia in order to attend the annual shareholder meeting of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation. The U’wa, a traditional community of 5,000 Indigenous people who live in the Colombian cloudforest, have vowed to walk off of a 1,400 foot cliff in mass suicide if Occidental Petroleum drills on their sacred ancestral homelands.

Seven Arrested at Earth Day Protest in Los Angeles Protesting Occidental Petroleum Project on Sacred U'wa Land in Colombia

Los Angeles – Seven people were arrested this afternoon in front of the LA headquarters of the Occidental Petroleum Corporation (Oxy), protesting the company’s plans to drill for oil on U’wa peoples homeland in Colombia.

Protesters installed a 23-foot metal pipeline in the company’s lobby, the end of the pipe jutting through the front doors and onto the sidewalk, dripping blood onto the company’s front steps

Full-page New York Times Ad Warns Investors: Occidental’s Amazon Oil Project is a "Death Sentence" for the U’wa Tribe

In a full-page ad appearing in the New York Times today, an international coalition of twenty-seven environmental, human rights, and religious organization warned that Occidental Petroleum’s "Samoré" oil project is a death sentence for the U’wa people.

Environmentalists Disrupt Trade Conference in Atlanta US Government: Don't "Fast-Track" the Destruction of the Amazon & Our Climate

Atlanta, Georgia - Demanding an end to "fast-track" destruction of the Amazon and the Earth's climate, environmentalists today disrupted a US government-sponsored conference designed to promote US investment in Latin America. In protest of Clinton's request for "fast-track" authority, activists unfurled a banner and sounded off alarm bells inside the conference room this morning at the Westin Peachtree Plaza Hotel.

Tribe Threatens Mass Suicide U’wa Chief to Deliver a Personal Message to Occidental Petroleum and Shell (Entrevistas en Espanol)

WHO:
Roberto Cobaria, President of the Traditional U’wa Authority, an Indigenous tribe from the Cloud Forest joins scores of demonstrators and other concerned members of the Los Angeles environmental, human rights, religious, legal and academic communities calling on Occidental and Shell International to abandon plans to drill for oil on U’wa lands.

Davi Kopenawa Yanomami, Yanomami Indigenous Leader from Brazil

TO ALL WHO WISH TO HEAR ME
The biggest problem for the Yanomami Indians now are the garimpeiro (goldminers) who are in our land, and the illnesses they bring with them. The government's National Health Foundation say that 1300 Yanomami had got malaria up until May this year.