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1. UPDATE: More killing, More Threats to Indigenous Lands in Colombia
2. Reuters Nov 26 Colombian tribes hold rally against 'genocide'
3. Reuters Nov 25 Rightist Gunmen Said to Kill Colombian Indian Leader
4. US expands support for Colombia
5. NY TIMES op-ed: A Dangerous Appetite for Oil

for background info on the U'wa people and their struggle see :
http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/beyond_oil/oxy/
www.amazonwatch.org
www.uwacolombia.org

#1 UPDATE : MORE KILLING, MORE THREATS TO INDIGENOUS LANDS IN COLOMBIA

Tragedy has struck once again in Colombia where violence, fear and repression have become all too familiar. On Saturday November 24th Luis Angel Charrua, one of the founders of ONIC - (The National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia) was killed with several other members of his community. These killings which came on the eve of a nationwide ONIC gathering to demand peace, are just the latest in an escalating wave of violence that has claimed the lives of many of Colombia's indigenous and community leaders. U'wa leaders were attending the conference and continue their work of building alliances with other indigenous groups, trade unions, human rights activists and campesinos to stop oil exploration and to stop the violence. For more information see #2 and #3 below.

In recent months the endless violence of Colombia's 37 year old civil war has come closer and closer to the U'wa communities. The Colombian military has dramatically increased its presence in the region surrounding the U'wa and even more ominously paramilitaries have now appeared on the scene. Right wing paramilitaries murdered a Colombian congressman in a town less than 40 miles from U'wa headquarters. Left wing guerrilla forces are escalating as well and the FARC - Colombia's largest guerrilla group - have threatened to attack anyone they find traveling on nearby roads.

The U'wa have called on their supporters to work for peace in Colombia by organizing to stop further US military aid to Colombia. Particularly in these troubling times of escalating violence around the globe we must all redouble our efforts for a democratic, just and ecologically sustainable global society. The rhetoric of the war on terrorism has quickly been applied to Colombia and threatens a deepening of the conflict rather than a move towards peace. For more resources on the networks being built in this country to stop US military aid to Colombia check out the 7 Why YOU Should Care about Colombia fact sheets (available at http://www.colombiamobilization.org/info.html)

Meanwhile the oil grab on native land in Colombia continues. Ecopetrol, the Colombian state oil company, announced that of the 15 largest oil prospects that will form the new Colombian oil map, 8 will begin perforation - breaking ground - within the next 3 months. One of these is perforation at a site within the Siriri block run by Oxy. The U'wa are working to get more information about Oxy's plans and preparing both for legal and community mobilization strategies. In addition to Oxy, Ecopetrol has two contracts in association with the Spanish petroleum company REPSOL, to explore and drill in U'wa ancestral land.

The reality is that until we have confronted the root cause of the problem - global fossil fuel addiction - there will continue to be attacks on U'wa land and in pristine ecosystems and indigenous homelands around the world. Even as we support individual struggles like the U'wa peoples we must work to reassert democratic control over the entire energy sector and shift investments away from fossil fuel extraction and into renewable energy. Fossil fuels destroy ecosystems, threaten human rights and impact public health at every stage of their production. From the search for new fossil fuel supplies on U'wa territory, to massive infrastructure projects like Ecuador's OCP pipeline, to refining which poisons neighboring communities and finally consumption which releases CO2 and other greenhouse gases that cause global warming, every phase of fossil fuel production is loaded with hidden costs.

A coalition of groups has formed to break the fossil fuel chain of destruction by going after the common denominator of every stage of production : investment capital. An international movement is targeting Citigroup the world's largest and most destructive financial institution and demanding they stop funding fossil fuels, forest destruction and human rights abuses. For more information about how Citigroup funds the fossil fuel chain of destruction check out : http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/citigroup/20h_globalwarming.html

Finally to make matters worse the US government seems to be exploiting the tragedy of September 11th to more overtly militarize American policy on Colombia and increase direct support for US oil companies and pipelines. The US Ambassador to Colombia recently announced plans to help Colombia guard its oil pipelines as part of the "war against terrorism". See #4 below. The pretense that American military aid to Colombia is about stopping drugs is now gone and its clear that the US will do whatever is necessary to maintain the flow of oil out of Colombia. It is more important now than ever that those of us who have supported the U'wa and magnified their calls for an end to US military aid link our struggles and redouble our efforts. The US government is making Colombia one of the frontlines in their new carte blanche "war against terrorism" and the U'wa and other indigenous communities are caught in the firing line. The U'wa need your prayers, they need your financial and political support and most importantly they need you to tell their story and educate your community about the devastating effects of fossil fuel addiction and US militarism. As the U'wa say join "the global crusade to defend life".

To plug into the international support network and start organizing locally to support the U'wa and end oil exploitation and violence in Colombia please contact either Amazon Watch or Rainforest Action Network at 415-398-4404/1-800-989-RAIN or email organize@ran.org or kevin@amazonwatch.org.

2. Colombian tribes hold rally against 'genocide'

COTA, Colombia, Nov. 26 (Reuters) - Dressed with colorful tribal dresses, hundreds of Colombian Indians gathered in this village on Monday to demonstrate against a 37-year-old guerrilla war they say is causing their extinction.

''We are victims of a systematic genocide that is killing us off,'' said Armando Valbuena, president of the Colombian National Indigenous Organization (ONIC), which says there are about 1 million Indians among Colombia's 40 million population.

Colombia's 85 indigenous groups are falling victim to killings, kidnappings and attacks carried out by left- and right-wing illegal armed groups fighting in a war that has killed 40,000 civilians in the last decade. While the exact number of Indian deaths is unclear, human rights groups say the toll is disproportionately high for the ethnic group.

On Saturday, suspected right-wing paramilitaries killed a prominent Indian activist and five other men in central Caldas province as they prepared to leave for the three-day national conference at Cota, outside the capital Bogota.

Valbuena said about 800 Indian leaders have been killed in the last 10 years. The majority of the attacks have been attributed to the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which targets suspected leftist collaborators, and the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by the Spanish initials FARC.

Indians are forcefully recruited into Marxist guerrilla groups or right-wing vigilante militias, and ancestral lands have become the scene of fierce territorial battles, forcing thousands, including entire tribes, to flee.

INDIANS DEMAND ROLE IN PEACE TALKS

Donning painted faces and invoking their gods of the earth, water and sun, Indian leaders accused the government of ''condemning them to oblivion'' and called for a larger role in government-sponsored peace talks.

''We want to defend our ideas, our culture and our land, but the government is not interested in that,'' Adelmo Ipia, governor of the Paez tribe told Reuters.

Said Eulalia Yagari, a leader of the Embera tribe: ''The government is tolerating genocide. Stop persecuting us. We are harming nobody.''

President Andres Pastrana is engaged in 3-year-old peace talks with the 17,000-member FARC, but the talks have failed to end violence. Pastrana has set Jan. 20 as the deadline for agreeing on a cease-fire, but the FARC is currently refusing to meet government negotiators in protest over paramilitary activity near their enclave and low-flying Air Force aircraft.

On Saturday, the Colombian government and the country's second-largest Marxist rebel force, the Cuban-inspired ELN, agreed to return to formal peace talks, which broke down in August.

3.Rightist Gunmen Said to Kill Colombian Indian Leader

Sunday November 25 7:55 PM ET
BOGOTA, Colombia (Reuters) - Suspected far-right gunmen have killed a prominent Indian activist in the western Colombian countryside as he prepared to leave for a national native conference, an indigenous leader said on Sunday.

Luis Angel Charrua was gunned down together with at least two other men near the village of Rio Sucio in Caldas province on Saturday night by suspected members of the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia -- known by the Spanish initials AUC, said national Indian leader Armando Valbuena.

Police and army officials said that they could not confirm the killings, because combat with illegal armed groups had made it impossible to reach the area so far.

Charrua was a founder of Valbuena's National Organization of Indigenous Peoples of Colombia -- ONIC --, which in August made a plea to the United Nations for help to prevent the ''extinction'' of Indians caught in the cross-fire of a 37-year war.

Colombia's 84 indigenous groups are falling victim to killings, kidnappings and attacks carried out by illegal armed groups on the left and the right fighting in a war which has killed 40,000 civilians in the last decade.

Denouncing Charrua's killing, ONIC leader Valbuena accused President Andres Pastrana of complicity by failing to stop the killings.

``We insist that Andres Pastrana's government has a clearly defined policy of genocide toward our peoples,'' Valbuena said, speaking at the national indigenous meeting in the central province of Cundinamarca at which Charrua had been expected.

INDIANS RECRUITED, KILLED

Indians are forcefully recruited into Marxist guerrilla groups or right-wing paramilitary vigilante militias, and ancestral lands have become the scene of fierce territorial battles, forcing thousands, including entire tribes,to flee.

According to figures from the United Nations, 10 Indian leaders were killed in the first six months of 2001. Many more have received death threats or have disappeared.

The majority of the attacks have been attributed to the paramilitary United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, which targets suspected leftist collaborators, and the Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia -- known by the Spanish initials FARC.

But in at least one recent incident in Cauca province, unarmed Paez Indians managed to shame a group of FARC guerrillas into abandoning an attack on the lonely village of Caldono, local media has reported.

Indians have also condemned Pastrana's U.S.-backed ``Plan Colombia'' offensive against drugs -- which combines economic assistance to grow alternative crops with a massive spraying campaign against cocaine's raw ingredient, coca leaf.

The Indians say the chemical used in the spraying, glyphosate, is destroying crops in their lands and has forced thousands of impoverished Indian peasants who grow coca to try and scratch a living deeper in the jungle.

According to ONIC, there are about 1 million Indians among Colombia's population of 40 million.

4. US expands support for Colombia
Saturday, 27 October, 2001, 00:12 GMT 01:12 UK

US help will focus on armed groups as well as drugs

By Jeremy McDermott in Bogota

The United States has confirmed it is going to broaden its war on terrorism and provide Colombia with further aid to fight its three warring factions that are on the American terrorism list.

The US ambassador to Bogota, Anne Patterson, has recently hardened her stance on Colombia's warring factions, likening them to Osama Bin Laden and stating that the US would want to extradite certain guerrilla and paramilitary leaders.

The Colombian Government's chief peace negotiator, Camilo Gomez, met Marxist FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) rebel leaders on Friday, but the guerrillas insisted they would not return to stalled peace talks.

Oil interest

Analysts speculated that the US decision was going to herald a deepening of American involvement in Colombia, up until now restricted to the war against drugs, and they were right.

Colombia is about to become a front line in America's global war against terrorism.

Ambassador Patterson has announced that Washington will train and equip elite anti-kidnapping and bomb squads, assist civilian and military terrorism investigators and help Colombia guard its oil pipelines.

Most of the pipelines are run by US companies, which have been hard hit by repeated attacks by Marxist guerrillas.

New Vietnam?

Former US President Bill Clinton granted Colombia $1.3bn of mainly military aid, but with strict conditions that it be used only for fighting against drugs.

It seems those conditions will be lifted and the US will provide intelligence and resources to help the beleaguered government of President Andres Pastrana fight the 37-year civil conflict against Marxist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries.

Critics see the announcement as one that will lead to "mission creep", as in Vietnam, and drag the United States deeper into Colombia's bloody civil conflict.

Within Colombia, there is suspicion of US intentions, with the shadow of American involvement in Central America still fresh in people's minds.

Colombian President Andres Pastrana will meet US President George W Bush in Washington on 11 November to review the situation.

5. NY TIMES OP-ED October 29, 2001

A Dangerous Appetite for Oil
By ROB NIXON

ADISON, Wis. -- For 70 years, oil has been responsible for more of America's international entanglements and anxieties than any other industry. Oil continues to be a major source both of America's strategic vulnerability and of its reputation as a bully, in the Islamic world and beyond.

President Bush recently urged America to reduce its reliance on foreign oil. We can take his argument further: by scaling back our dependence on imported oil, we can not only strengthen national security but also enhance America's international image in terms of human rights and environmentalism.

Importing oil costs the United States over $250 billion a year, if one includes federal subsidies and the health and environmental impact of air pollution. America spends $56 billion on the oil itself and another $25 billion on the military defense of oil-exporting Middle Eastern countries. There are additional costs in terms of America's international reputation and moral credibility: our appetite for foreign fossil fuels has created a long history of unsavory marriages of convenience with petrodespots, generalissimos and fomenters of terrorism.

The United States currently finds itself in a coalition with Russia, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the Northern Alliance. Their human rights records range from bad to heinous. This is a conjuncture familiar to oil companies. From the Persian Gulf states to Indonesia, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Colombia, Angola and Nigeria, they have cozied up to dubious, often brutal regimes that allow corporations to operate with few environmental or human rights constraints.

Outside the West, the development of oil resources has repeatedly impeded democracy and social stability. The oil-extraction industry typically concentrates wealth and power and provides many incentives for corruption and iron-fisted rule. In most oil-exporting countries the gap between rich and poor widens over time. From the perspective of local people beneath whose land the oil lies - Bedouins in the Middle East, the Huaorani in Ecuador, Nigeria's Ijaw and Ogoni, the Acehnese of Indonesia - the partnership between oil transnationals and repressive regimes has been ruinous, destroying subsistence cultures while offering little in return. The Nigerian writer Ken Saro-Wiwa, hanged in 1995 for leading protests against such destruction, dubbed the process "genocide by environmental means."

Oil and related extractive industries have arguably done more to tarnish America's image abroad than any other commercial pursuit. By scaling back our reliance on foreign oil we could reduce a major cause of anti-American feeling while simultaneously decreasing our vulnerability to oil embargoes and price spikes.

Long before the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush adopted the slogan, "National security depends on energy security." How can America best come closer to energy self-sufficiency? To date, the Bush administration has changed our relationship to fossil fuels primarily by deregulating and decentralizing controls, while advocating increased drilling. Interior Secretary Gale Norton supports opening up many wilderness study areas, national monuments and roadless national forests for oil and gas leases.

But we will never be able to drill our way out of even our short-term energy problems, much less our long-term ones. America consumes 25 percent of the world's oil while possessing less than 4 percent of global oil reserves. Even opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling would provide a mere 140 days' worth of fuel. Such modest new supplies would take an estimated seven years to reach the consumer and would be more costly than imported oil.

We have to be more inventive about easing our reliance on all oil, foreign and domestic. A good start would be to reverse the administration's rollbacks in financing research into fuel efficiency and renewable, clean energy sources. We need to build on the encouraging advances in developing wind and wave power, biomass research, transport fuels based on renewable oilseed crops, and photovoltaic modules that can convert even diffuse light into electricity. Some of the most promising progress has been in energy efficiency: household appliances that require half the energy they did a decade ago; cars that can get 70 miles per gallon.

Changing public attitudes is going to be an even steeper challenge. Yet is it too much to hope that the S.U.V. will come to be viewed as an unpatriotic relic of the 90's, when America's dependence on foreign oil spiked by over 40 percent? Is it unreasonable to believe that, with commitments from Detroit and government, hybrid cars could become not just more sophisticated but sexier, narrowing the gap between fashion and conscience while saving us money at the pump? Could hybrids and fuel- efficient vehicles emerge as the cars of choice for a more patriotic and worldly America?

Redesigning hybrids is one thing; the business of remodeling American consumer desire is an undertaking altogether more ambitious. But we do have precedents: remember the beloved Oldsmobile 88's and Ford LTD's that lost their appeal after the 1973 Arab oil embargo? With a combination of pocketbook incentives, government stimulus and industry inventiveness, perhaps we could start uncoupling America's passion for the automobile from our dangerous and doomed appetite for oil. The most decisive war we can wage on behalf of national security and America's global image is the war against our own oil gluttony.

Rob Nixon teaches English and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.