Colombia

Responding to the immediate and increasing threat of oil exploration on their lands, the U'wa people have issued a statement demanding that both the Colombian government and Occidental Petroleum recognize their right to refuse or accept oil activity on their land as a precondition to any dialogue about oil development. The statement also demands an immediate withdrawal of the military presence in U'wa territory, which has increased dramatically over the last month.

Last February the Colombian Environment Ministry issued an authorization for oil exploration by Oxy, a branch of the US company Occidental, to start in indigenous territory on the border with Venezuela, considered one of the largest oil fields of the hemisphere. To stop the beginning of the activities of the company, about 4,000 members of the U'wa tribe recently threatened to commit mass suicide if oil exploration takes place on their ancestral lands.