Colombia's U'wa indigenous people will carry out a mobilization near Cubará, Colombia in opposition to natural resource extraction projects in their ancestral territory. Colombia's state-run oil company and largest corporation, Ecopetrol, is drilling within U'wa sacred territory and has plans to expand their exploration operations.

"We reject any intervention in U'wa ancestral territory. We are not going to negotiate, and we want to be very clear that anything that happens to the U'wa people is the responsibility of the oil companies and the national government," said Berua Tegria, secretary of Asouwa, the U'wa Association of Traditional Authorities and Councils.

Ecopetrol has been preparing for the extraction of natural gas in the Gibraltar 3 platform, despite reiterated opposition by the U'wa that dates back over 15 years. Ecopetrol plans to expand exploration for gas into the hamlets of La China and La Laguna – an hour outside of Cubará, Boyacá department – part of the U'wa ancestral territory. Hundreds of U'wa will march to La China and La Laguna today and tomorrow to protest Ecopetrol.

"We are worried that these megaprojects have brought militarization. We constantly see members of the Army walking with their weapons in our territory, contaminating our sacred sites with thoughts of war." Berua continued, "We now have a mini-battalion as our neighbor that is providing security to the oil company."

In recent years, Ecopetrol has launched a massive initiative to expand its operations both within Colombia and internationally in Peru, Brazil, and the Gulf of Mexico. At the same time, the Uribe administration has begun to privatize the state-owned company, having sold some 10% of its shares in national and international stock markets. To raise more capital, the company recently launched a $1.5 billion bond sale on the U.S. stock market.

"Investor enthusiasm for Ecopetrol should be tempered by the increasing reputational risk the company is running as they expand into indigenous territory without a social license to operate," said Atossa Soltani, Executive Director of the San Francisco-based Amazon Watch. The organization has been working with the U'wa since 1997.

"International investors should take recent indigenous uprisings in Peru and Ecuador as a wake-up call. Efforts to impose oil and gas extraction against local wishes is a recipe for escalating social conflict and violence," added Soltani.

Context: This year, indigenous people have designated October 12th as an international day of action for Pachamama, or Mother Earth. Events are being carried out throughout Colombia and in other Latin American countries such as Ecuador, Peru, Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay and Bolivia. Colombian indigenous groups are organizing a series of actions throughout the country as a follow-up to last year's minga, in which tens of thousands of indigenous people took to the streets in defense of their territories. Amongst other things, they protested the U.S. Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

In recent years, the U'wa have also appropriated October 12th as a day of resistance against threats to their rights. Last year they organized a march to the oil platform at Gibraltar 3, involving hundreds of community members. On October 12, 2006, they published an exhaustive legal analysis in defense of their right to determine economic activities within their territory.

(Amazonwatch, 21/10/2009)