EFAU 64 - December 1999Back to list of articles in this issue

U’wa Communique

“Approximately 200 members of the U'wa indigenous tribe of northeastern Colombia assembled in a permanent settlement on part of our ancestral land [ on ] November 16.

This area.. is the site where the multinational company Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) wants to drill the oil well ‘Gibraltar 1,’.. which threatens life and our ancient culture.

With this permanent presence and with the support of the local farmers... we are claiming our ancestral and constitutional rights to life and to our traditional territory...

We U’wa people are willing to give our lives to defend Mother Earth from this project which will annihilate our culture, destroy nature, and upset the world's equilibrium...

We ask people around the world who value the Earth and indigenous peoples to speak out against the multinational oil company Oxy through protests, letters and other actions of solidarity.”