GORE: PRINCIPLES OR PETROLEUM? (fwd)

[Something funny or tragic, if accurate, take your pick.  Mark]



GORE: PRINCIPLES OR PETROLEUM?

     STOP MAKING A KILLING ON OIL IN COLOMBIA
                       SAVE THE U’WA NOW!

In the remote Colombian Andes, a peaceful indigenous tribe of 5,000 
people—the
U’wa—live on their traditional

land. The U’wa and their way of life are now at risk because of an oil 
company
with deep ties to US Vice President
Al Gore Jr. – Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). If Oxy proceeds with their plan to
drill for oil in the first half of 2000 on
U’wa land, it will initiate an unprecedented environmental and human 
disaster.
The U’wa have repeatedly stated that
they "are willing to die" to keep oil drilling off of their ancestral 
lands. 

US Vice-President Gore owns up to $500,000 in Occidental stock and takes 
major
contributions from the company.
He and his family have earned much of their wealth through their connections
with Oxy. Gore wants the
environmental and human rights vote: let's challenge him to tell Occidental 
to
abandon oil fields on all U'wa land.

LIFE & DEATH IN COLOMBIA

"The continuing standoff with the U'wa has escalated to a critical mass, to
the point where the next step by either

side could put the white-hot spotlight of the world on a single
well…tantamount to another Brent Spar or Exxon
Valdez." – Oil & Gas Journal, November 29,1999

The U'wa grabbed international headlines in 1996 when they vowed to commit
collective suicide if the Samoré Block
project is not halted. Their message is clear: In their words: "We would
rather die, protecting everything that we hold
sacred, than lose everything that makes us U'wa." 

In November 1999, hundreds of U'wa Indians marched on the site of 
Occidental's
first planned drill site, establishing a
permanent settlement to block the drilling slated to begin in the coming
months. Over four hundred are gathered there
today. The drill site is located less than six hundred yards from the 
legally
recognized U'wa Unified Reserve and
clearly falls within the U'wa's larger traditional ancestral territory. The
U'wa community of Santa Marta inhabits the
area adjacent to the well site, putting them at clear risk from the
environmental and social impacts of the oil project.
In January 2000, Oxy began constructing an access road to the drill site.

In Colombia, oil brings violence. The northeast region of Colombia is a
quagmire of warring armed factions, and oil
infrastructure is the strategic target of choice. Innocent bystanders, both
native and foreign, are caught in the crossfire.
In 1997, Roberto KuwarU’wa, President of the Traditional U'wa Authority, was
beaten and threatened. In March of
last year, three American humanitarians working with the U'wa were kidnapped
and executed by left wing guerrillas.
This cycle of violence inflicts economic and environmental damage as well. 
In
the past twelve years, Oxy’s pipeline
has been attacked more than 600 times. As a result of this sabotage,
approximately 2.1 million barrels of crude oil
have spilled into the soil and rivers - eight times the amount spilled by 
the
Exxon Valdez. Ominously, within the
first few weeks of 2000, observers have noted a significant increase in
militarization of the U’wa region. 

GORE & OXY

"We ask people around the world who value the Earth and indigenous peoples 
to
speak out against the multinational
oil company Oxy through protests, letters and other actions of solidarity." 
–
Statement from the U’wa People,
November 17, 1999

The history of the Gore family and Occidental Petroleum have been 
intertwined
for generations. Al Gore Sr. (the vice
president’s father) "had never been rich `til he worked for [Occidental
Petroleum founder Armand] Hammer" as a Vice
President and Board Member of Oxy. Money from Occidental and its 
subsidiaries
formed the basis of the Gore family
fortune, which has now driven two of its sons to national prominence.

Gore Jr. directly benefits from this family relationship in several ways. He
owns up to $500,000 in Oxy stocks, and
stands to reap large financial rewards if Oxy finds the 1.5 billion barrels 
of
oil that the company estimates is under
U’wa land. Oxy and its employees are also frequent and generous funders to
both the Gore campaign and to the
Democratic party. In 1996, Oxy Chairman Ray Irani gave the Democratic 
National
Committee $100,000 just 2 days
after sleeping in the Lincoln Bedroom of the White House.

Environmental and human rights leaders have been attempting to direct the 
Vice
President’s attention to this issue for
years. The Coalition for Amazonian Peoples and Their Environment wrote the
Vice President on this issue requesting
his assistance. No reply. A full-page ad in the New York Times generated
hundreds of letters to Gore. Just 3 months
ago, Sierra Club Executive Director Carl Pope told the Vice President that
"hope for the U’wa and other victims of
rights abuses in Colombia lies in your hands." 

Meanwhile, the U'wa's efforts to halt the project have been steadily gaining
momentum. Occidental's original partner
in the Samoré Block, Royal Dutch/Shell, pulled out of the project citing 
human
rights and public relations concerns.
At Occidental's Annual General Meeting last year, shareholders representing
over eight hundred million dollars worth
of stock voted in favor of a resolution asking Occidental to re-evaluate the
project. Recently, the U’wa have regained
title to 14 percent of the land that has been taken from them over the last
400 years. The U’wa are simply demanding
their right to live a life free of the pollution and violence that oil 
brings.

                           WHAT YOU CAN DO

Gore wants the environmental and human rights vote: let's challenge him to
ensure that Oxy cancel its planned
operations on U’wa lands in Colombia.

UNTIL FEBRUARY 1st:

Call or fax Al Gore Jr. c/o his campaign staff in New Hampshire. Ask him if 
he
wants the Gore legacy to be
principles or petroleum. Tell him we will not tolerate a candidate who 
profits
from blood for oil. Demand that he use
his influence with Oxy to stop the oil project on U’wa land.

Gore 2000 Campaign Headquarters

Manchester, New Hampshire

603-622-8303 –phone

603-668-7358 – fax

OR

Albert Gore Jr.
Vice President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue
Washington DC 20500
FAX: 202/456-7044

Urge Gore to persuade Occidental CEO Ray Irani to withdraw Occidental
operations from all U'wa traditional lands. If
Gore wants the environmental and human rights vote, he MUST put his money
where his mouth is. Its Big Oil, Old
Money and Business as Usual vs. Environmental and Human Rights – lets tell 
the
candidates which we want to win.


Sources: "Occidental and Oriental Connections", Micah Morrison, Wall St.
Journal, 9/29/99; "Despite Image, Gore has deep
roots in oil industry", Timothy Gardner, Reuters, 8/9/99; "Potential oil
industry flashpoint centers on Oxy’s Colombian
rainforest wildcat", Oil & Gas Journal, 11/29/99; Center for Responsive
Politics; Center for Public Integrity.

 This briefing has been prepared by Amazon Watch, with the support of
Rainforest Action Network and Project Underground.

    The U’wa Defense Working Group is: Amazon Watch • Action Resource 
Center •
Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund •
 EarthWays Foundation •International Law Project for Human, Environmental &
Economic Defense • Project Underground •
                Rainforest Action Network • Sol Communications • U’wa
Defense Project

For more information go to www.amazonwatch.org; www.moles.org; www.ran.org
OR www.publicintegrity.org

 
Stephen Kretzmann
Consultant
U'wa Campaign
Amazon Watch
310-456-1340
510-551-7953 - mobile
 
"Using armored vehicles, tear gas -- which even made the delegations staying
in hotels queasy -- and, on top of that,
pepper gas. Brutal methods, dragging people through the streets. Six hundred
arrested. What would happen if such
behavior took place in Cuba? What would they say if they saw an army, the
National Guard, occupying the city?
Tons of masked men with horrifying outfits to scare people, thousands of
police in all directions, men being dragged,
horses and other animals to attack people? They would say that it was a
flagrant and massive violation of human
rights and that, therefore, they had to use the NATO formula to conduct a
"humanitarian" intervention."
 
-- Fidel Castro, receiving the Cuban delegation upon its return from Seattl