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Colombia's U'wa People Come to Los Angeles To Plead:
"Oxy, no oil project on our land!"

LOS ANGELES - Nearly two-hundred human rights and environmental activists joined leaders of Colombia's U'wa people in a march through the L.A. streets today to protest Occidental Petroleum's planned drilling on the U'wa's ancestral rainforest homeland. The demonstrators massed in front of the oil company's Wilshire Blvd. headquarters with signs, giant banners demanding Oxy to cancel its proposed project immediately. The U'wa have declared if Oxy's project proceeds they, as a people, will commit suicide.

Twenty of the demonstrators marched out into Wilshire Blvd, chanting "Oxy out of U'wa land!" They momentarily blocked traffic in front of Oxy's main entrance; all were arrested by LAPD. Kelly Quirke, Executive Director of Rainforest Action Network, who was one of those arrested commented: "If the U'wa are willing to kill themselves to stop Oxy's drilling, getting arrested is the least I could do to make sure it doesn't have to happen."

The U'wa leaders arrived in Los Angeles after an arduous three-day journey from their homeland high in Colombia's cloud forest to speak directly to Oxy decision-makers at the company's annual shareholders meeting in Santa Monica Friday. Oxy may decide the fate of the U'wa-land project - and of the U'wa people - at this meeting.

"The march and protest today," said Shannon Wright, director of Rainforest Action Network's Beyond Oil campaign, "echo the U'wa demand that Oxy cancel its project on their sacred lands. Oxy is on notice that the company is responsible for the survival of the U'wa people." U'wa leader Berito Kuwaru'wa, who won the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prize last year, concurred: "We demand an announcement by Occidental that it is canceling its project on our ancestral sacred land. There is nothing else left for the company to do."

The U'wa live adjacent to Oxy's existing Caņo Limon oil project. The pipeline is a magnet for rebel, military and paramilitary activity that has been bombed, according to Occidental's own figures, 23 times in the past year, and over 500 times in its twelve-year existence, spilling some 1.7 million barrels of crude oil into the rainforest's soil and rivers. The U'wa are fearful similar violence and pollution would harm their people and scar their traditional territory if the proposed U'wa-land project goes forward. Earlier this month, the U'wa had a grim preview of things to come when three Americans who were helping the U'wa to set up educational programs were kidnapped and murdered by rebels.

The mother of one of the three murdered Americans addressed the protestors today at a rally in UCLA's Myerhoff Park, where the march began. Julie Freitas implored the gathered activists to remember the work of her son, Terrence Freitas, and support the U'wa in their campaign to stop the oil project on their ancestral lands.

Press contacts: Celia Alario, Mark Westlund - 310/317-7045
Shannon Wright (Mobile phone on site) - 415/305-RAIN

Related URL's:

April 30: An International Day of Solidarity with the U'wa People! For planned actions, see:
URL: http://www.lisn.net/home.htm#urgentaction
URL: http://www.ran.org/ran_campaigns/beyond_oil/index.html

The U'wa Defense Working Group is endorsed by the following organizations, listed in alphabetical order: Action Resource Center, Amazon Watch, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Earth Ways Foundation, Indigenous Environmental Network, International Law Project for Human Environmental and Economic Defense, Project Underground, Rainforest Action Network, and Sol Communications.