The confrontation of the U'wa and Occidental Petroleum

Hartford Web Publishing is not the author of the documents in World History Archives and does not presume to validate their accuracy or authenticity nor to release their copyright.

Occidental threatens U'wa of Colombia: Tribe contemplates mass suicide: From Project Underground, 23 May 1998. 400 years ago a portion of the U'wa committed mass ritual suicide rather than to Spanish rule. Today, they once again talk about death as new invaders—Occidental Petroleum—move onto their land. Whether the pollution of their sacred land, the increased violence that the project will bring, or by their own hand, oil exploration means the death of the U'wa.
On the Murders of Three American Activists in Colombia: From U'wa Defense Working Group, 6 March 1999. We are left with no alternative than to continue fighting on the side of the sky and earth and spirits or else disappear when the irrationality of the invader violates the most sacred of our laws. The murder of dedicated activists who had defended the rights and traditional territory of the U'wa from oil exploration by Occidental Petroleum.
Colombian Indians get new reserve in oil zone: By Karl Penhaul, Reuters, 20 August 1999. The U&wa tribe has been granted a huge new reservation in a region of the country believed to be teeming with crude oil. The move marked the latest stage in a long-running legal wrangle between U.S. oil giant Occidental Petroleum Corp and the semi-nomadic U'wa Indian group.
Colombia Indians to fight on against oil firm: Reuters, 26 August 1999. Colombia's U'wa Indians said they would continue their long-running battle to prevent Occidental Petroleum Corp. from drilling for oil in their ancestral homelands. Under Colombia's Constitution, the U.S.-based multinational will not be allowed to explore in about 50 percent of the block that overlaps the reservation that the government formally approved last week.
Colombian Indians Seize Oil Wells on Their Ancestral Homelands: By Karl Penhaul, Reuters, 17 November 1999. Militant Colombian Indians seized their ancestral homelands to prevent a U.S. multinational from drilling for oil and pledged to defend Mother Earth to the death. Some 200 U'wa Indians occupied the Gibraltar-1 test site in the Samore block in northeast Colombia.
Communique to the international and national public: OXY invades Uwa territory; The army of Colombia with 5000 men at the service of the OXY: From the Colombian Labor Monitor, 21 January 2000. Army soldiers invade U'wa traditional territory in Cedeno, where Occidental has a well. Facing the opposition of the Uwa people, the Army stated that over and above the Uwas, there had to be exploitation of oil.
U'wa: Court suspends drilling by U.S. oil company near Indian lands: Fox News, 31 March 2000. A Colombia court ordered a halt to a U.S. oil company's exploration near a Colombian Indian reservation, in what appeared to be at least a temporary victory for the tribe. The president of the state-owned Ecopetrol oil company that has a contreact with Occidental says the decision placed a small minority's interests above those of the nation.
U'wa vs. Occidental Petroleum: By Paul Jeffrey, National Catholic Reporter, 8 September 2000. A govenrment delegation arrived in the isolated village because the U'wa had blocked highways to prevent trucks belonging to Occidental Petroleum from reaching the company's Gibraltar I drill site at CedeF1o. A life-or-death struggle over land rights between indigenous Colombians and the powerful U.S. oil company.
Emergency in Colombia on U'wa land: From Patrick Reinsborough, U'wa Emergency Response Network, 19 September 2000. Since 1996 the U'wa have gained international support in their resistance to Occidental and have prevented its drilling project from proceeding. The Colombian government granted Oxy drilling rights after much lobbying from the Clinton administration.