“We know that the riowa (the white man) has put a price on all that is alive, even the stone itself, he trades with his own blood and he wants us to do the same with our sacred territory, with ruiria the blood of the earth which they call petroleum . . . all this is foreign to our customs . . . every living being has blood; every tre, every vegetable, every animal, the earth as well, and this blood of the earth (ruiria, petroleum) is what stregthens us all, plants, animals and human beings.
But we ask riowa: how can you put a price on our mother and how much is that price? . . . In former times, the dark path of plunder, genocide and injustice against our people was lit by a candle in the name of God and His Majesty. Now it is lit by oil in the name of progress and the greatest of majesties for non-indigenous peoples – money . . . The white man has declared war on everything, except his own inner poverty. He has declared war on time and he has even declared war on himself . . . We are children of the earth, help us defend her.”
-- Berito KubaraU’wa, President of the U’wa Traditional Authority

IN THIS POST:

1. URGENT U’WA UPDATE: PLANS FOR OIL DRILLING ON U’WA LAND
ANNOUNCED!!
2. U’WA COMMUNIQUE – Feb. 12, 2003
3. 3/24 JOIN THE U’WA IN L.A. FOR THE COLOMBIA MOBILIZATION
4. 3/19-21 JOIN GLOBAL EXCHANGE REALITY TOUR: OIL GREED – FROM CALIFORNIA TO COLOMBIA

1. While the Bush Administration relentlessly pushes for war in Iraq, they continue to fan the flames of oil wars and corporate terror around the world, and Colombia is proving to be ground zero in the other front of the ‘War on Terrorism.’ From the ever-evolving Washington ‘justification’ for US involvement in Colombia—from the “War on Communism” to the “War on Drugs” to the “War on Terrorism”-- US foreign aid to Colombia has been great for Corporate America and deadly for the Colombian people. Plan Colombia is wreaking havoc on indigenous peoples, Afro-Colombians, campesinos, labor leaders, and innocent
Colombian civilians, as well as the country’s vast and fragile ecosystems. Widening US involvement in Colombia is driven by the same addictions as US military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and around the world: oil and empire. Weapons and military training paid for by US tax dollars kill in Colombia so that U.S. corporations can make record
profits clogging American highways with SUVs powered by Colombia oil.

According to the Bush Administration’s draft budget request for 2004, the US would allot $110 million dollars to protect OXY’s Cano Limon oil pipeline-- a $3 per barrel corporate subsidy paid for by US taxpayers and the lives of innocent Colombians. Should the operations of a morally
bankrupt US oil company implicated in numerous human rights abuses related to the infamous Santo Domingo massacre receive a $110 million corporate welfare package (up $12 million from last year) for a project that protects pipelines, not people? According to community sources on
the ground, US trained troops patrol within a few feet of the pipeline to keep the oil flowing. Meanwhile the local residents find themselves caught in the spiraling violence between guerillas, paramilitaries, and the army that OXY and the oil industry helped create. The conflict that
has plagued OXY’s existing Cano Limon operations form part of the basis for U’wa resistance: that oil exploitation on their land will bring the country’s violent conflict home to their forest communities. If oil were to be found under U’wa land, it would flow through this pipeline, which crosses the northeastern boundary of their recognized land
reserve. And Colombia’s state oil company—Ecopetrol—is dead set on finding that oil, whatever the price to the U’wa and their fragile homelands.

While the efforts of thousands of U’wa supporters worldwide who offered their energy, creativity, and bodies to support the U’wa’s decade long resistance to oil exploitation succeeded in kicking OXY out of U’wa land, the oil barons continue to see nothing but dollar signs underneath U’wa sacred land. In addition to continuing to test drill in OXY’s abandoned Gibralter wellsite, Ecopetrol has announced plans to drill for oil INSIDE the U’wa legally protected reserve. As in the past, the U’wa have reaffirmed their adamant opposition to any oil drilling on their ancestral land and vow to fight this project every step of the way—and they’re going to need our help.

The U’wa are again asking the international community to stop the drilling plans and stop US military aid to Colombia. The U’wa say no to the oil wars and we must stand with them! Currently, the best way to take a stand for the U’wa and all Colombians suffering from US foreign
policy in Colombia is to come out and support the National Colombia Mobilization on March 24 and expose the corporate profiteers behind the War on Terrorism in Colombia (see #3 for an action near you!).

For more info on the U’wa campaign, contact:
 kevin@amazonwatch.org
www.amazonwatch.org

2. Comunique to the Colombian and International Communities
Resguardo Unido U’wa, Cubará, 12 de febrero de 2003

THE U’WA DEMAND THE IMMEDIATE WITHDRAWAL OF ECOPETROL FROM OUR SACRED LAND

If ECOPETROL continues with the Sirirí project in U’wa territory, our culture will disappear.

With this affirmation, we want to remind and inform people that ECOPETROL and its associated companies like OXY have destroyed indigenous cultures and the environment. Some clear examples are: the Guahibo tribe in Arauca, the Motilones Bari tribe in Norte Santander, the indigenous brothers of the Putumayo, and now us. In these lands,
violence, hunger, forced displacement, state abandonment and the absolute poverty are rampant.

Plan Colombia has facilitated the invasion of transnational petroleum companies like OXY onto our lands. The militarization of our lands is guarantying oil operations like exploration, exploitation and transportation of this “black gold” from the department of Arauca to Coveñas and the Gibraltar 1 oil project. In response to Colombia’s need to secure its petroleum interests, two “rehabilitation zones” * have been created, one of them being the department of Arauca, which directly affects our territory.

Roberto Afanador Cobaria – Berito Kubaruwa- current U’wa President took office yesterday, February 11, before the Mayor of the municipality of Cubará. This U’wa leader has received the official order of our maximum authorities to continue with the national and international campaign
against ECOPETROL’s oil project in U’wa ancestral territory.

“The U’wa will not allow oil exploration in our sacred territory,”
stated the official decision of the Sixth Congress of the U’wa Association, January 19-26, 2003.

Given that ECOPETROL will continue with seismic exploration activities in U’wa territory, we see the need to reactivate the May 1997 lawsuit against the Colombian Government before the Inter-American Commission of Human rights of the O.A.S. We also denounce and reject the offers of projects that ECOPETROL is giving to some communities as mechanisms and strategies of division to debilitate the U’wa resistance.

Today, like yesterday, the U’wa ask for Colombians and people all over the World to demand that the President of the Republic of Colombia Alvaro Uribe Velez, and his ministers respect the right to life, culture and the environment in our territory, because ECOPETROL is causing
irreparable human and environmental damages to the U’wa community, Colombia and the World.

ROBERTO AFANADOR COBARIA – BERITO KUBARUWA-
U’wa President. Asociación U’wa, Cabildo Mayor

“We are children of the earth, help us defend her.”

* Declared by right wing Colombian President Alvaro Uribe,
“Rehabilitation Zones” are areas were a permanent state of emergency has been called, empowering the armed forces to restricting civilian movement, conduct warrantless searches, and suspend many basic civil rights.

2. JOIN THE U’WA AND COLOMBIAN LEADERS IN L.A. MARCH 24
PROTEST US MILITARY AID TO COLOMBIA AND OXY!!

Can’t come to L.A.? Go to www.colombiamobilization.org to find a Colombia Mobilization Action near you! On March 24th, the National Colombia Mobilization will be targeting the following corporations reaping profits off of war in Colombia:
Monsanto - St. Louis, MO
Sikorsky – Hartford, CT
Coca-Cola – Atlanta, GA
&
OXY – Los Angeles, CA
11am, Demonstration at the Westwood Federal Building,
11000 Wilshire Blvd., L.A.
March to Occidental Petroleum International Headquarters

End Corporate Terror in Colombia
...from Cola to Crude

Killer Profits for Corporate America

Since Colombia became the third largest recipient of US foreign aid in the world, political murders and displacement have doubled. Our tax dollars arm and train the Colombian military who directly support and collaborate with the right-wing paramilitaries. The Colombian security
forces and paramilitaries together are responsible for 84% of all political killings and forced disappearances, according to Human Rights Watch. From the “War on Communism” to the “War on Drugs” to the “War on Terrorism,” US foreign aid to Colombia has been great for Corporate
America and deadly for the Colombian people.

*We pay for Sikorsky-made Blackhawk helicopters used against civilians.
*We pay for Monsanto’s toxic defoliant which results in environmental destruction and forces people from their homes.
*We pay for paramilitaries who murder trade-unionists demanding justice from Coca-Cola.
*We pay for the protection of the Caño Limón Pipeline, owned and operated by Los Angeles based Occidental Petroleum.

OCCIDENTAL: Pipelines Over People

Occidental Petroleum of Los Angeles, best known for its unsuccessful attempt to drill for oil on U’wa Ancestral Land, is now in line for a $98 million “War on Terrorism” corporate welfare aid deal to arm and train Colombian troops to protect it’s oil pipeline. $98 million to
serve a company that had admitted paying off both FARC and ELN guerrilla groups. $98 million to serve a company whose base of operations was used as a staging post for a military attack on unarmed civilians in Santo Domingo in 1998.

The Colombia Mobilization is a national coalition of organizations and individuals working to transform US policy towards Colombia and the Andean region. We are committed to nonviolence in our own actions as well as supporting exclusively nonviolent, negotiated political
solutions to the conflict in Colombia.

JOIN PEOPLE OF CONSCIENCE ALL OVER THE COUNTRY AS WE CONFRONT THE CORPORATIONS THAT PROFIT OFF OF US FUNDED TERROR IN COLOMBIA.
Join the Colombia Mobilization

March 24, 2003
11am, Demonstration at the Westwood Federal Building, 11000 Wilshire
Blvd., L.A.
March to Occidental Petroleum International Headquarters

for details on the week of teach-ins, speaking events, videos, the reality tour and other activities, contact  colombia@globalexchange.org

for information on the National Mobilization on Colombia
www.colombiamobilization.org.

for information on the West Coast Regional Colombia Mobilization or to get involved contact
 colombia@globalexchange.org

in Northern California: 415.575.5534 in Southern California:
310.456.9158

West Coast Regional Mobilization is sponsored by: Amazon Watch, Colombia Peace Project, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Global Exchange, LA Peace and Freedom Party, People for a Gasoline-Free Day, Project Underground,
Rainforest Action Network, the Ruckus Society, Witness for Peace Southwest, and others.

The National Colombia Mobilization is a coalition of over 100 organizations working to bring an end to US military aid to Colombia.

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3. JOIN THE GLOBAL EXCHANGE REALITY TOUR
Oil Greed: From California to Colombia
March 19-21, 2003

As part of the National Mobilization on Colombia, this trip will explore the ways that oil interests and industry affect US policy and communities in both California and Colombia.

Oil has arguably become one of the largest causes of conflict in the world today. While many people see the control of Middle Eastern oil as a driving force behind the Bush administration’s march to war against Iraq, few are aware that in mid-January American soldiers arrived in
Colombia, the scene of the worst human rights crisis in the Western Hemisphere, to train Colombian troops in an oil pipeline protection program. In fact, oil interests and industry not only foster violence and militarization around the world, but refining this resource causes environmental destruction and adverse health affects on people of color
and the poor here at home.

This reality tour is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of how US dependence on oil is shaping US policy towards Colombia, and how the oil companies’ practices affect people in Colombia as well as indigenous communities, unions and poor and minority neighborhoods in
Southern California. Participants will learn how communities have been resisting oil companies who consistently favor their profits over people’s lives and health.

Highlights:
Meet with members of the Yokut Tejon tribe who have been fighting Occidental Petroleum’s drilling in Elk Hills (their sacred lands).
Hear about the U’wa struggle in Colombia to get Oxy off their land.
Meet the oilworkers union in Long Beach who have been involved in a labor dispute with Oxy.
Visit communities affected by oil refineries and learn about the environmental destruction they cause.
Hear stories from Colombians about how oil interests affect their communities
Learn about the history of the armed conflict in Colombia, US policy towards Colombia and how corporations are taking advantage of the severe human rights situation there.

Cost: $250 from Los Angeles with overnight accommodations, $200 without accommodations

Price Includes: accommodations, two meals per day, reading packet, full itinerary and program activities, group leaders and guides, and ground transportation.

Global Exchange strives to include and work with multi-cultural communities and to share and develop skills and leadership of people from diverse backgrounds. Anyone interested in this reality tour is encouraged to apply regardless of race, gender, class, religion, age and
sexual orientation. In some cases, a limited number of scholarships are available for low-income applicants.

For more information about this trip contact Liza at 415.575.5534 or  colombia@globalexchange.org