Colombia opts for oil over indigenous rights.

The Colombian government in September 1999 granted Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum a license to drill for oil near the lands of the indigenous U'wa people, who in 1997 threatened to commit mass suicide if companies were allowed to drill for oil in their territory.

The ruling comes as a heavy setback to the U'wa, who say the land approved for exploration is part of their traditional territory; which lies about 200 miles northeast of Bogota. "This action once again reveals how the rule of law ...is subsumed by a higher order of decrees and norms which serve local and transnational special interests," said Roberto Perez of the U'wa tribal council. "These interests not only threaten our ways of thinking and living, but they also restrict our capacity to protect our people."

Last year, Occidental backed down from its efforts to drill for oil on officially recognized U'wa lands after facing intense international scrutiny when a number of tribe members pledged to walk off a cliff in an act of mass suicide. U'wa spokesperson Berito Kuwaru'wa in 1998 was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for his role in heading off oil development by leading the tribe's 8,000 people in nonviolent resistance since Occidental was first granted the tight to drill on U'wa lands in 1992. While the company dropped its original plans, it has now received approval to drill just outside the U'wa reserve--500 meters from the border. Occidental estimates that the land could sit on top the country's largest oil field, possibly holding 1.4 billion barrels of oil.

Colombian environment minister Juan Mayr had hoped to forge a compromise by spearheading government efforts to increase the U'wa's territory while approving the oil project. In August 1999 the government expanded the reservation from 400 square kilometers to 2,200 square kilometers. "Twenty five percent of Colombian territory is protected in Indian reservations," Mayr told a reporter from the Miami Herald. "This is a very clear sign of the importance Colombia gives to its Indian peoples."

But the U'wa say the government's decision to recognize tribal ownership of a larger portion of their traditionally held lands will not compensate for the environmental and social disruptions that would be caused by the drilling. The U'wa, who believe that oil is the blood of the Earth and should not be extracted, are demanding control over all of their ancestral lands. The tribe also fears that oil development will place its people in the crossfire of the guerrilla warfare and environmental devastation that has plagued other regions undergoing oil development in Colombia.

According to Berkeley, CA-based Project Underground, which tracks the impacts of mining and oil development on indigenous people around the world, Occidental's Cano Limon oil operation in Colombia has been attacked by guerrillas 508 times in 11 years, causing more than 1.7 million barrels of crude oil to spill onto the land and into rivers. Rebel forces murdered three U.S. activists working with the U'wa last year, saying that they were CIA agents. Occidental plans to begin exploratory drilling later this year.

The military patch depicted at left is worn by Colombian soldiers who protect oil installations and is reproduced from "Blood of Our Mother," a Project Underground report on the U'wa available at www.moles.org.