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IN THE SPRING OF 2001, high in the Andean cloudforests of northeastern Colombia, a collection of indigenous U'wa werjayas (elders,) and karekas (medicine people) secluded themselves for a three-month period, fasting, meditating, singing and praying. Their aim was to "hide" what had been estimated as over a billion barrels of high-grade Colombian crude from the diamond drill bits of Los Angeles based-Occidental Petroleum (Oxy). The country's largest discovery in decades was allegedly situated beneath U'wa ancestral territory. The planned oil project thrust the U'wa onto the frontlines of resistance to corporate globalization's quest for oil deep in the frontier ecosystems and indigenous lands of South America.
The site of this concerted spiritual work is the same remote highlands where the U'wa, who number roughly 8,000, retreated in the 160Os to avoid being enslaved by the conquistadors to work their gold mines. According to the U'wa's oral history, in the face of the ferocious advance of Spaniards and missionaries, several U'wa bands chose a "death of dignity" by committing collective suicide rather than a life of slavery that would keep them from fulfilling their culture's true purpose of existence: to preserve the equilibrium of the world. Nearly 400 years later, the appetite for black gold presented the U'wa with the greatest threat to their existence. Harkening back to their ancestral history, the U'wa threatened to commit collective suicide if Oxy proceeded with oil drilling in their territory.
Occidental Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell first acquired exploration rights to the Siriri oil block (formally known as Samore) in partnership with the Colombian government in 1992. The block falls entirely within U'wa ancestral and legally titled land.
In 1998, under pressure from human rights and environmental groups, Royal Dutch Shell pulled out of the project before it started, fearing a repeat of the human rights violations and ensuing international pressure that marred the company's Nigerian operations.
Four years and $100 million later, test results showed Oxy's highly touted exploratory well was dry. To everyone's surprise at the company's 2002 annual shareholder meeting, Occidental Petroleum announced its withdrawal from the project due to failure to discover commercially viable oil reserves. The U'wa, and an international network of allies who had campaigned in support of their demands, had won...