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U'WA Leader calls Plan Colombia a death sentence From organize@ran.org 20 Feb 2001 IN THIS UPDATE: 1. Tell Sanford Bernstein to stop Oxy's
drilling!
1. SANFORD BERNSTEIN FAILS TO RESPOND TO U'WA DEMAND TO DIVEST In December Roberto Perez, President of the U'wa Traditional Authority visited the San Francisco offices of Oxy's largest shareholder Sanford Bernstein to deliver a letter demanding that Sanford divest from Occidental. His visit was preceded by a letter sent on December 6, 2000 by four California human rights and environmental organizations who have been working to support to U'wa (see #2 below for full text). The letter states clearly that "Unless Sanford C. Bernstein distances itself from Occidental Petroleum, it could well become the next target of growing public protests worldwide." Sanford Bernstein's response has been a clear resounding SILENCE. This silence makes them complicit with Occidental's illegal and immoral invasion of U'wa ancestral territory and means that it times for all of us to show them that if they want to profit from Oxy's actions then we will hold them responsible. The situation on the ground at the drillsite continues to be heavily militarized. As of Feb 9th U'wa representatives reported 2,000 soldiers in the vicinity and ongoing exploratory drilling. There are still 25 U'wa maintaining their vigil and they reported that the situation is fairly stable. They do not report any current mistreatment but the U'wa still want to mobilize to block any further encroachment of their territory and still desperately need funds to do so. Meanwhile across Colombia the violence has escalated as Plan Colombia swings into effect with massive fumigation efforts, US military training for the Colombian army and increased bombings of Oxy's Cano Limon pipeline. This is the future of the U'wa people and their lands unless we can stop Oxy's drilling and get the project permanently canceled. Organize now in support of the U'wa!
Wherever you are organize a teach-in, vigil or letter writing party. Connect with local activists working for peace in Colombia or to stop the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas and highlight the U'wa struggle within the broader context of anti-corporate globalization organizing. Go to RAN?s website www.ran.org (in the Activist Corner/Skills Building Section) for 198 Methods of Non-Violent Direct Action for ideas. You can also find downloadable fact sheets about Sanford Bernstein and 10 things you can do for the U'wa at www.ran.org www.amazonwatch.org and www.moles.org Contact Rainforest Action Network to get an organizer's packet. organize@ran.org or 415-398-4404/1-800-989-RAIN Please let us know if you are planning an action or event so we can spread the word. Screen the new 15 minute video "Kajka Ika
: Defending the Heart of the World". in your community. It's a great way
to educate people and raise funds for the U'wa.
Also write, call or fax Sanford Bernstein's Vice Chairman Roger Hertog at their US Corporate Headquarters at: Mr. Roger Hertog
Or fax him at : 212-756-4453
Also call Sanford Bernstein's corporate parent Alliance Capital at 1-800-221-5672 To find complete contact info for these offices go to: www.bernstein.com/>locations.htm Sanford's parent company Alliance Capital has offices in Cleveland, San Antonio, Minneapolis, Secaucus NJ, as well as locations around the world (UK, Germany, Africa, Australia, Japan, India, Canada, etc.) for more information go to click on "Contact Alliance" then "About
Alliance" and then "Locations"
#2 NGO LETTER TO SANFORD BERNSTEIN December 6, 2000 Mr. Roger Hertog
VIA FACSIMILE: 212-756-4453 Dear Mr. Hertog: In early April 2000, representatives from our organizations and Mr. Roberto Perez, the President of the 5,000-member U'wa tribe from northeast Colombia visited your New York City Headquarters to discuss your investments in Occidental Petroleum (OXY) and this company's Samore oil project which is threatening the lives and the sacred lands of the U'wa people. During a brief telephone conversation with our representative Atossa Soltani of Amazon Watch, you expressed that you were "genuinely interested" in our concerns and that you would personally read our informational packet and investigate this matter and will send us a response to our request that Sanford C. Bernstein divest from Occidental Petroleum. No response was ever received from your company. We are writing to urge that Sanford Bernstein divest their Occidental Petroleum holdings for a number of reasons: 1. A worldwide divestment campaign has been launched against Occidental Petroleum due to the company's insistence to move ahead with the controversial Samore oil project in violation of internationally recognized human rights laws; 2. The environmental and social impacts of this project represent real financial risks to OXY's investors as the oil company is and will continue to be mired in a public relations debacle over this issue; 3.The U'wa people have stated they are willing to die if necessary to stop the oil drilling; 4. Legal challenges and opposition from the U'wa community and their allies have and will continue to delay this oil project; 5. The U'wa are currently gearing up for additional legal challenges in Colombian and international courts; 6. Occidental Petroleum is attempting to crush local opposition with the assistance of thousands of Colombian soldiers who are escorting and guarding the area - the use of armed forces will only exacerbate the human rights abuses in the region and increase threat of violent conflict between the military and peaceful resisters; 7. The divestment campaign in gaining visibility and momentum. Since February 2000, more than 75 public protests have been held at Fidelity Investments offices around the world due to the company's OXY holdings. During this period, Fidelity Investments has divested more than 18 million shares in OXY, roughly 60 percent of their holdings (at today's share price, divestments represent over $400 million). Unless Sanford C. Bernstein distances itself from Occidental Petroleum, it could well become the next target of growing public protests worldwide. If interested in the negative publicity received by Fidelity Investments, please view the news clips section of the web site: www.amazonwatch.org/newsroom/mediaclips00/uwa00/uwa_clips.html. Mr. Roberto Perez, the President of U'wa Traditional Authority will be arriving in the San Francisco Bay area during December 11-14. He will be participating in press and public events where our coalition will be launching the next phase of the OXY-Divestment campaign to educate the public and the media on OXY's major financial partners. We remain eager to hear Sanford C. Bernstein's position on the Occidental Petroleum's drilling project on U'wa land. Furthermore, we would like to know if your company currently has any environmental and social investment screens or policies in place. We would appreciate a response at your earliest convenience. Thank you. Respectfully, Atossa Soltani, Executive Director Amazon
Watch
cc: Mr. Bruce W. Calvert, Chief Executive Officer, Alliance Capital Management FOR MORE INFO on how to help stop Plan
Colombia go to
#3 feb 7, 2001
U'wa leader Roberto Pérez speaks
about indigenous resistance to the Colombian oil rush.
DEEP BENEATH THE cloud forests of Colombia's northeastern highlands lie 1.4 billion barrels of crude oil, and Occidental Oil is poised to make a killing off of it. But the path to profits goes through the home of the indigenous U'wa, who, led by Roberto Pérez, are mounting fierce resistance. The U'wa fear that oil development on their ancestral territory spells a death sentence for their culture and the land that sustains them. They say they would rather die quickly, in defense of the planet, than slowly on the streets of Colombia's urban centers, as has been the fate of other tribes that have ceded their land rights to the government. In keeping with a 300-year-old precedent in which a group of their ancestors jumped off a cliff rather than fall into the hands of Spanish missionaries and tax collectors, the U'wa have threatened mass suicide if oil drilling is allowed on their lands. By launching their resistance in 1993, the U'wa incurred the wrath of the U.S.-backed Colombian armed forces, the third-largest recipient of U.S. military aid in the world. Before leaving office, President Bill Clinton raised the stakes with Plan Colombia, plowing $862 million into the country (thanks in part to lobbying by Occidental vice president Lawrence Meriage), mostly for military equipment and infrastructure. The country, which sports the hemisphere's worst human rights record, is already plagued by well over a million internal refugees. "In the news we've been hearing that Colombia will become another Vietnam," said Pérez, president of the High Council of the U'wa Traditional Authority, in a recent Bay Guardian interview. Pérez was in town to pay a surprise visit to Sanford C. Bernstein and Co.'s local branch office. The investment company succeeded Fidelity Investments last year as the largest stockholder in Occidental and is now the target of a divestment campaign spearheaded by Rainforest Action Network, Amazon Watch, and Project Underground. Bay Guardian: What does so-called oil development in your lands signify in terms of the U'wa's economic and cultural survival? Roberto Pérez: When we speak of our territory, we speak of our culture, our identity, because they're related to the land. Ours is a culture that has been passed on from generation to generation for thousands of years. We have our own laws. We have our own form of government. What we are demanding is respect, recognition of our culture and our identity. The government talks about development and says that we have placed ourselves in opposition to 40 million Colombians. They say that you can't oppose the exploitation of petroleum. It's a Western way of thinking and a politic of the government and the transnational corporations that they impose on us in our own territory, but the development they talk about won't benefit the campesinos, the public sectors. The only ones who will benefit are a few groups that hold economic power. All the resources that have been exploited have benefited them. If the Colombian people had benefited, we wouldn't see the social injustice that we're living in Colombia. The civil war in Colombia arose from that injustice. BG: What role does oil play in the spiritualism and belief system of the U'wa? RP: We believe that the oil is the blood of our mother Earth. It's the equilibrium of nature and the world. And [its exploitation] is an attempt against the spiritual base of our culture and against life itself - against the environment, against the flora and fauna, and against biodiversity. Oil development in the region won't only affect the U'wa but also the campesino sectors, because where they're exploring is high ground, where several large rivers begin that feed the Colombian watershed. It will also affect Venezuelan territory, since we share a border. We believe in preserving the environment because it doesn't belong to us nor to the government, and much less to multinational companies. We believe that the second invasion has arrived in the name of development. The only options that are left us now are violence, death, and destruction. BG: They have already been exploiting oil in areas near your lands, and you've seen the environmental destruction it's caused. How is it that violence follows on the heels of oil development in the area? RP: In 1986 they discovered oil in Caño Limón, in Arauca. Our Guajira brothers lost all their ancestral territory. Now they ask for handouts on the streets of the municipalities. Their homes were destroyed, their sanctuaries, and Lipa Lake, a source of fish that come down the Arauca river. Now it's all contaminated. Another case is that of our brothers Matilón Bari, in the department of Santander, at the foot of the mountains near our territory. They lost all their best agricultural lands, and they are no longer able to fish. Violence has followed those projects. In Arauca many indigenous and campesino leaders have been killed. The same has happened in Tibú, in northern Santander. The minister of the interior ordered oil exploration in the Samoré mountains in January [of last year], and it has already cost us the lives of several of our children. Three died and 11 disappeared in February. We blocked the highway so they couldn't access our territory. When they arrived to evict us, three children under six months old drowned in Cubujón River trying to escape the tear gas the riot police shot at us. And the oil development hadn't even begun yet. When there are encounters between the guerrillas and the army, we find ourselves in the middle of the line of fire. BG: How do you see Plan Colombia affecting your struggle? RP: Plan Colombia is a plan for violence. The Colombian government says its purpose is to eradicate coca production, but that's not the case. It is directed against the guerrillas and against the people. The money the United States is spending in Plan Colombia will go to protecting the international companies by purchasing arms, more sophisticated equipment, and to constructing military bases in the richest zones. And when they say they will eradicate the coca crops by aerial fumigation, they are contaminating the environment, the rivers, and the [agricultural] cultivations for consumption. When you analyze the regions where they have chosen to apply those resources, their first priority is Putumayo, because it is rich in natural resources. Second is the Colombian Amazon; third, the northeastern forests where our territory is located; and fourth is the Pacific coast. Those are the strategic areas, and that is where they will construct military bases. BG: I've read that leaders before you have been beaten and have received death threats. Have you also received these kinds of threats? RP: Violence isn't just a matter of kidnappings and assassinations. There is such a thing as political violence directed by the government in the name of development. The threats begin when people -whether indigenous or not - begin to assert their rights. They have labeled us guerrillas, or they say we are subversives who the guerrillas have turned against oil development. And although we haven't received any direct threats yet, I think we will. We know the government is investigating those who are leading the resistance. They know who we are. BG: Of course. RP: We will not die on our knees but rather on our feet. We are willing to die in defense of our territory, because it is the only alternative left to us. We've spoken with other indigenous communities. It is imperative that we unite, because this is a problem that affects all of us. If it's not petroleum, it's timber or hydroelectric power. In cases in which indigenous communities have negotiated, they've been deceived and they've lost their best territories, their sacred lands, their places of origin. They've lost their rivers, which have been of central importance to their subsistence. Those indigenous brothers made a mistake by negotiating, because the government never fulfills its promises. We convened with the government on two separate occasions, but while we were talking, they gave the companies the go-ahead to continue their oil exploration activities. So we had to withdraw from the negotiations. BG: What have been some of your accomplishments in your struggle, both locally and internationally? What have been some of the obstacles? RP: We can say that we've accomplished something: namely, the expansion of our reservation. This was done by legal resolution, in the Constitution. It expanded our territory by 220,000 hectares [849 square miles]. But only 40,000 [154 square miles] of those are for cultivation. The rest is an environmental reserve. But one month after delimiting those lands, the minister of the environment granted a license for oil exploration. On the local level we've succeeded in creating an alliance with the campesinos, who have backed us - not only in words but with actions. They've accompanied us in our blockades. That kind of solidarity is of great significance for the country as a whole. They recognize our autonomous identity, they recognize our rights to our territory, and they recognize the importance of the environment. [Working together] has served as a learning experience for both of us. At the national level we've won some influence on the universities in Bogotá, in Cali, in Medellín, Bucarama, in the large cities. On the international level we've obtained many environmentalist friends, mostly here in the United States, although we also have a sizable influence in 14 countries in Europe. Now we're discussing organizing an international environmental convention in our territory that could attract media attention. It isn't just our Colombian territory that's
at risk. I attended a conference in Manila [in the Philippines] in which
all the participants spoke of the problems they face in their respective
countries - with oil, gold, diamonds, wood - and these threaten the cultures
that still exist. Resistance is the only alternative that we can continue
to advance in the long run. When we attain more unity, I think we can do
something for the world. So our message to people in the United States
would be, first, to exert pressure from here to put a stop to Plan Colombia,
and, two, to stop all U.S. military intervention in Colombian territory.
Plan Colombia is a death sentence for us.
#4 FOUNDING CONFERENCE FOR COLOMBIA
ACTION NETWORK
The Colombia Action Network (CAN) is having their founding conference in Chicago, IL on April 7th and 8th at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). Two activists from Colombia will be speaking (representing the human rights and labor movement sectors). There will also be strategy sections to determine coordinated national actions and campaign ideas for activists and groups interested in ending US military aid to Colombia. Anyone is invited that is interested in Colombia including activists and groups from the Colombia and Latin American Solidarity, peace and justice activists, faith based and anti war movements. Please email chicsc13@aol.com,
Limited scholarships are available for
activists traveling from the East or West coasts.
#5 2 San Francisco U'wa Benefits "Before the gold was yellow, now it is black, but the color of the blood that pays for them continues being red, continues being Indian..." U'wa Traditional Authorities U'wa Defense Project Presents John Trudell
A Spoken Word Benefit for the Colombian U'wa
For more information about the benefit check out www.moles.org Native American activist and spoken word artist John Trudell will perform a benefit show for the U?wa indigenous community of Colombia. The U?wa community's on-going struggle to defend their lives, culture, and ancestral territory from oil exploitation by LA-based Occidental Petroleum has become a pivotal international environmental and human rights issue, re-inspiring indigenous and non-indigenous communities around the globe to continue to work to 'protect the equilibrium' of the earth. The U'wa community has sustained a vigilant non-violent mass mobilization of indigenous people, local farmers, students, and other Colombians in protest of Occidental's controversial first drill and as part of a larger people's protest against the US-backed military Plan Colombia. Proceeds from this benefit event go toward the U'wa community's mobilization fund. This event also marks the second anniversary of the murders of Terence Freitas, Ingrid Washinawatok, and Lahe'ena'e Gay - the three North American human rights workers who were murdered after a visit to U'wa territory in March 1999. also in SF
Includes screening of short documentary on the U'wa struggle Defending Kajka Ika : The Heart of the World Bands include: Tom Hamilton, Heidi and Leah of Maya Rides Away, Chi McLean and Five 7. Come ready to shake your rump! |