How Colombia’s ancient U’wa tribe sent a US oil giant packing.
When geologists from the United States oil giant, Oxy, found what they believed was one of the largest oilfields in Latin America in 1994, there was jubilation in the company’s Los Angeles headquarters.
Oxy — closely linked to former US presidential candidate Al Gore — was confident enough to tell shareholders there could be 1,4-billion barrels in Colombia’s Samore field and a further 900-million barrels in an adjacent area.
More than $100-million of research and seismic studies, said Oxy, pointed to its concession being the country’s most promising field yet, worth up to $50-billion over many years.
No one paid much attention to the U’wa, one of the world’s remotest, oldest and most spiritual tribes whose ancestral lands lie in the cloud forests and plains of the north-east of the country where Oxy wanted to drill. But, following one of the most bizarre campaigns waged against a large corporation, the small tribe has finally sent the $10-billion-a-year Oxy oil company packing.
In a terse statement this month Oxy said that it would now leave the region “for technical reasons” and hand back its 2000km2 concession to the Colombian government. Its test wells, drilled to a depth of more than 3600m, revealed only faint traces of gas and water.
“We remain confident in the geology. We made an evaluation of the results of the drilling and the investment we’ve made and it didn’t justify continuing,” a spokesperson said.
The U’wa, who say they have never known war or conflict, were jubilant at Oxy’s departure and sent a defiant message to the West. “No one destroys man. Man destroys himself. We want to continue reflecting to avoid the destruction of the world because the U’wa want to continue to live,” said a U’wa spokesperson.
According to independent geologists, it is extremely unusual for a company that has spent so much and been so confident in its science to give up on what was expected to be a blockbuster field after just one attempt. “It is not unusual to find no oil on the first attempt, but you would certainly expect them to keep looking if the prize is so high,” said an American geologist who has worked for Oxy, but asked to remain anonymous.
So where did the oil go? Oxy says it is there beyond doubt in giant quantities. The U’wa agree. The difference is that the U’wa believe their elected spiritual leaders, the mysterious and secretive werjayas, physically drove it away from the company’s test well site after praying and fasting for many months.
In the complex cosmology of the U’wa the world above the ground is mirrored by one below, and oil is the blood of the Earth — the element that sustains the land and lakes and that prevents earthquakes.
The werjayas were so adamant that the world would end if Oxy took the oil that they declared that many in the tribe would commit mass ritual suicide and jump from their sacred Cliff of Death. It was no idle threat, said the werjayas through their Spanish-speaking spokesperson. Five hundred years ago many U’wa had jumped to their death when the conquistadors first came to what is now Colombia. Better to die, said the werjayas, than to see the end of the world.
Like several other indigenous groups, the U’wa believe the Earth only exists because of them. They say they sing the world into existence every day, keep it in equilibrium and prevent its collapse by the constant reflection and meditation of their werjayas. “Our purpose on Earth is only to protect the world,” said Roberto Cobaria, a U’wa spokesperson. “The world depends on us.”
The tribe also commented on the social and political chaos that they have observed since they came into contact with the West 40 years ago. “The money king is only an illusion. Capitalism is blind and barbaric. It poisons the water and the air and destroys everything. And to the U’wa it says that we are crazy — but we want to continue being crazy if it means we can continue to exist on our dear mother Earth.”
The U’wa have cause to wonder whether their god, Sira, has always been listening. In the past 100 years their lands have been decimated and many of their people have died from Western diseases. Since they started opposing Oxy with only the help of a young US environmentalist, Terry Freitas, who visited them in 1996, they have been drawn ever deeper into political dispute with the guerrillas of Farc, who plague the oil industry and regularly kidnap workers and blow up its pipelines, and the government. Freitas was killed by guerrillas in 1999 after visiting the tribe for a third time, but by then he had done enough to make the U’wa environmental heroes.
US human rights and environment groups picked up their case, they were awarded the prestigious $10 000 Goldman prize for the environment, and they seriously embarrassed “environmentalist” Gore during his election campaign in 2000. Gore’s grandfather worked with Armand Hammer, the founder of Oxy, and Gore Jnr is a major individual shareholder.
Many other Amazonian tribes are now fighting oil companies that have flooded into the Amazon basin in search of oil. Many accept money and development, but others, like the U’wa, refuse everything that the state or the companies offer.
However, the U’wa triumph may prove short-lived. The Colombian state oil company, Ecopetrol, which has assumed control of Oxy’s exploration block, says it intends to continue looking for oil. One official said last week that the region was “still attractive”, and that it may only need to drill a further 800m and invest $10-million to find the oil. The U’wa may need to keep praying.