MIM Notes 210                   May 15, 2000

Indigenous people fight Yankee genocide in Colombia

by MIM

On April 4, 48 Colombian indigenous groups began a national 
mobilization in support of the fight of the U'wa and Embera-Katio 
peoples struggles. The U'wa are fighting against Occidental 
Petroleum's oil drilling on their sacred ancestral lands and the 
Embera-Katio are fighting the flooding of their lands by the Urra 
dam project.(1)

These demonstrations represent not only the struggles of the U'wa 
and Embera-Katio peoples but those of indigenous peoples 
throughout Colombia and around the world. Drilling and harvesting 
trees and exploiting the land in other ways for capitalist profit 
has cost indigenous people farming, hunting, and fishing grounds 
essential to their subsistence. It also threatens the very 
existence of the First Nations by taking away more and more of 
their land and attacking their way of life. It is one of many ways 
that the imperialists attempt to assimilate or kill off the First 
Nations throughout the world.

In Colombia, where the military is financed by large amounts of 
u.s. aid and where u.s. corporations (including Occidental 
Petroleum) take the land and labor of the country for great 
profits, the government is very willing to do the bidding of its 
u.s. masters. The attacks on the First Nations in Colombia are 
just a small part of the more than 500 years of genocide practiced 
against indigenous people by the u.s. imperialists. 

But the First Nations in Colombia are not willing to sit by and 
let this genocide happen without a fight. On April 1 1,200 U'wa 
people began an occupation in the town of Cubara. On April 4 more 
than 3,000 Embera-Chami, Paez and Waunana people blocked the road 
to Buenaventura, cutting the port city off from supply lines. 
Another 1000 indigenous protesters blocked the entrance to the 
main government building.

On April 4, four indigenous legislators began a hunger strike 
outside the Congress building in Bogota. On April 5, more than 400 
indigenous people blocked the Panamerican highway in the 
southwestern region of Colombia as part of the national 
mobilization.(1)

Money vs. life

The U'wa people have been fighting the oil drilling since 1992 
when Occidental first began explorations in the area. They have 
threatened continued protests and even mass suicide if Oxy 
proceeds with its oil drilling on U'wa sacred ancestral land.

The drilling site under dispute has possible reserves of 2.5 
billion barrels of oil. Colombia is in danger of having to import 
oil by the year 2005 if it does not find new reserves soon, so the 
government of Colombia has a strong interest in getting at the 
U'wa land. And this represents a huge boon in business for 
Occidental.(2) Oxy has invested $12 million in the site so far and 
will not easily give up.(3)

The Embera Katio people are fighting for reparations for damage 
already done to their land. The government constructed a 340 
megawatt Urra hydroelectric dam in northern Cordoba province on 
Embera Katio land. According to organizers in Colombia, the 
government owes that nation 82,000 acres 33,000 hectares which is 
the area that was flooded by the project.

A temporary court victory

In addition to popular mobilization, the U'wa people have been 
fighting for their land in the courts. On March 30th a Colombian 
court ordered the Los Angeles-based Occidental Petroleum (Oxy) to 
halt drilling for oil on U'wa land. 

5000 U'wa tribe members live in the tropical rainforest of the 
Andes in territory the imperialists define as near the Venezuelan 
border of Colombia. Oxy claims that it has the right to drill on 
the land because the imperialists never granted the U'wa official 
recognition for this part of the land as part of their official 
reservation. Similar to the situation of other First Nations being 
slowly squeezed off their land, the U'wa reservation covers only 
14% of U'wa traditional territory as the imperialists and their 
lackeys everywhere do a good job of denying indigenous people 
their land and livelihood.(4)

The judge supported the U'wa tribe's claim that the drill site is 
on their ancestral lands and that drilling would violate their 
"fundamental rights." MIM agrees with this ruling though we point 
out that it is remarkable that the capitalist courts would 
recognize the fundamental rights of a First Nation. It shows that 
there are contradictions in the Colombian bourgeoisie to the 
extent that the oppressed can ally with a section of it. The 
fundamental reason for this is that the U.$. imperialists super-
exploit the entire people of Colombia and the national bourgeoisie 
of Colombia envies the share of the U.$. imperialists.

The ruling is only a temporary victory because it only suspends 
the drilling project. And the government promised to appeal the 
ruling on the grounds that it favors the U'wa over the general 
population of Colombia.(5) 

It is not hard, from a narrow capitalist viewpoint, to argue that 
struggles for the rights of indigenous peoples conflict with the 
interests of the general population. The Colombian government is 
going to argue that granting land to a small group of people, 
rather than exploiting that land for profit that would 
theoretically benefit a larger number of people, is unfair. 

But there are several important omissions to this argument. First, 
the Colombian people do not benefit from the capitalist 
corporations' profits. The government and the wealthy of the 
country will get richer, but the government does not serve the 
people and will not be sharing the profits with the people and 
will not be developing the economy to benefit the people. Second, 
it is important to defend the right of nations to self-
determination and against imperialist aggression, and this can be 
done in this case to benefit all the Colombian people oppressed by 
U.$. imperialism. The U'wa and other First Nations have a historic 
claim to their land which can not be ignored just to make the 
imperialists wealthier.

Stalin clearly defined a nation in 1913 in "Marxism and the 
National Question" when he wrote: "A nation is a historically 
constituted, stable community of people, formed on the basis of a 
common language, territory, economic life, and psychological make-
up manifested in a common culture."(6)

In addressing the oppression of some nations by others in this 
same essay Stalin wrote "The right of self-determination means 
that only the nation itself has the right to determine its 
destiny, that no one has the right forcibly to interfere in the 
life of the nation, to destroy its schools and other institutions, 
to violate its habits and customs, to repress its language, or 
curtail its rights. Nations are sovereign, and all nations have 
equal rights."

These positions on the national question developed by Stalin in 
the early 1900s still hold true for the imperialist world today. 
It is crucial that communists uphold the right of nations to self-
determination and fight against imperialist intervention in 
oppressed nations. 

U'wa take their fight to the u.s. government

Roberto Perez, Chief of the U'wa tribe, recognizes the power of 
international mobilization as he has been traveling throughout the 
united states galvanizing support for the U'wa struggle. He 
visited two of Occidental's shareholders, Fidelity Investors in 
Boston and Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. in Manhattan in early April. 
He was attempting to convince the firms to divest from stocks in 
Oxy. There have been over 40 demonstrations at Fidelity offices 
throughout the united states in support of the U'wa struggle over 
the past few months.

Perez is also trying to organize a meeting with high government 
officials at the White House, including  presidential candidate Al 
Gore, who himself holds roughly $500,000 in Occidental stock.

The day the court ruled in favor of the U'wa people, Perez met 
with u.s. congressional representative Cynthia McKinney and 
confronted Oxy vice president Lawrence Meriage. Meriage had 
requested a meeting with McKinney to try to win her over to 
support the oil project after she commented on the Oxy controversy 
during a House floor debate on Colombian aid. But when he arrived 
at her office he found Perez and eight representatives of the U'wa 
Defense Working Group waiting to greet him. 

McKinney grilled Oxy about the impact of the oil project and 
Meriage admitted that the U'wa had not been consulted on the plans 
to drill the Gibraltar 1 oil well. Meriage had previously claimed 
the tribe was consulted. Consultation with indigenous groups is a 
legal requirement under the Colombian Constitution so this 
provides further legal fuel for the U'wa fight.(7)

Death and destruction insured if drilling takes place

In early February, with a drilling license from the government, 
the company began construction of the Gibraltar site. On February 
11, police killed three children and injured many adults when the 
police used tear-gas, riot batons and bulldozers to force hundreds 
of U'wa demonstrators off of their blockade at the Gibraltar 
site.(8) More than 200 U'wa people continue to occupy the 
Gibraltar site to prevent drilling.

Just north of the U'wa territory, Occidental's Canon Limon 
pipeline provides an example of the environmental destruction 
caused by their oil drilling. This pipeline has spilled 1,700,000 
barrels of crude oil into the soil, rivers and lakes over the last 
13 years. As a result the rivers and lakes are no longer fit for 
human consumption. The forests are also cleared for exploration 
and to set up roads to transport the oil.(4)

In addition to environmental destruction, the U'wa can look 
forward to a strong Colombian military presence on their land if 
Oxy drilling proceeds. Oxy and their partner Shell Oil pay a tax 
of $1 per barrel ($180,000 per day) to the Colombian military 
(which is already financed by u.s. aid) to protect their 
installations as Cano Limon from sabotage by guerillas. The 
Colombian military is infamous for its human rights abuses.(10)

Defend the rights of indigenous people everywhere

In a public communique, Roberto Perez, President of the U'wa 
Tribal Council stated: 

"Approximately 200 members of the U'wa indigenous tribe of 
northeastern Colombia assembled in a permanent settlement on part 
of our ancestral lands yesterday, November 16. This area is the 
site where Occidental Petroleum wants to drill the oil well 
'Gibralter 1,' an action which threatens life and our ancient 
culture. 

"With this permanent presence and with the support of the local 
farmers of Sarare, we are claiming our ancestral and 
constitutional rights to life and to our traditional territory. We 
demand that the Colombian government and Oxy leave us in peace and 
that once and for all they cancel the oil project in this area. 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. Caring for the Earth 
and the welfare of our children and of future generations is not 
only the responsibility of the U'wa people but of the entire 
national and international society. "

The situation of the U'wa is a product of imperialism. MIM stands 
firmly behind the U'wa fight for national self-determination and 
we recognize the need to fight against imperialism and for 
socialism as the best way to support the struggle of the U'wa 
people and First Nations everywhere.

As Stalin pointed out: "Whereas private property and capital 
inevitably disunite people, foment national strife and intensify 
national oppression, collective property and labour just as 
inevitably unite people, strike at the root of national strife and 
abolish national oppression. The existence of capitalism without 
national oppression is just as inconceivable as the existence of 
socialism without the liberation of the oppressed nations, without 
national freedom."(11) 

Notes:

1. Weekly News Update on the Americas Issue #532, APRIL 9, 2000. 
Nicaragua Solidarity Network of Greater New York, 339 Lafayette 
St., New York, NY 10012, wnu@igc.org.
2. Reuters, 5apr00
3. http://www.latinsynergy.org/uwa_tribe.htm 
4. Global Response Action Jan/Feb 2000.
5. Reuters 31Mar00
6. Reprinted in Marxism and the National-Colonial Question by 
Joseph Stalin, Proletarian Publishers.
7. Weekly News Update on the Americas Issue #531, APRIL 2, 2000.
8. InterPress Service, 2apr00.
10. http://www.starhawk.com/uwa/uwa1.htm (from Earth Justice Legal 
Defense Fund, October 7, 1997; U'wa Project Factsheet, October 6, 
1997; The Guardian (of London), September 20, 1997.)
11. Immediate Tasks of the Party in the National Question, Theses 
for the Tenth Congress of the R.C.P.(B.) Endorsed by the Central 
Committee of the Party. Published in Pravda, No.29, Feb 10, 1921. 
Reprinted in Marxism and the National Colonial Question, by Joseph 
Stalin