ELL: A Moving Open Letter to Al Gore about the Uwa

Fri Mar 3 02:08:28 UTC 2000

[I received this letter from Abby Reyes on the Indigenous Knowledge List,
and the author says she would like it to be more widely seen. - Nicholas
Ostler]

c/o 445 Summit RoadÊ Watsonville, CA 95076

February 3, 2000

Ê Dear Vice President Gore,

I write to you as the girlfriend of Terence Freitas, one of three human
rights workers kidnapped and assassinated last March while assisting the
U'wa indigenous community of oil-rich northeastern Colombia. I write toÊ you
from Palawan, Philippines, where I too help provide crucialÊ environmental
legal assistance to indigenous communities. I write toÊ remind you of the
various roles you personally have played in the caseÊ of the U'wa, including
that of meeting Terence and the U'wa in 1997.

One year ago this week, as I unpacked moving boxes into the apartment
Terence and I would have shared in Brooklyn, I found myself shelving two
copies of Earth in the Balance: my own, and that of Terence. I sat down
with the book again, rereading with marvel the poignant message you
asserted in 1993. You insisted that policy makers and the generalÊ citizenry
alike must take into account environmental and social costs ofÊ our coveted
northern affluence. Proudly, I thought back to the timeÊ Terence met with
you in Washington D.C., at a gathering for the 1997Ê Goldman Environmental
Prize recipients. Terence was instrumental inÊ bringing the U'wa struggle
against Occidental Petroleum to world-wideÊ attention. He accompanied U'wa
leader Roberto Cobaria to your office.Ê How strong a statement of
solidarity, for the Vice President of theÊ United States to meet with an
indigenous leader from the cloudforest ofÊ Colombia, recognizing his
peoples' adamant resistance to a USÊ multinational oil company. You,
Terence, the U'wa leader, and yourÊ principles, standing there together in
your office.

While I reread Earth in the Balance last February, Terence was in theÊ U'wa
cloudforest with Native American leaders Ingrid Washinawatok andÊ Lahe'ena'e
Gay on a cultural exchange. On February 18, Terence calledÊ from Cubara,
Colombia. I told him about the two copies of Earth in theÊ Balance. We
discussed whether you could be tapped as a more vocalÊ U'wa ally in the
campaign against the pending ecological, cultural, andÊ economic havoc oil
exploitation would spell for the U'wa and Colombia.Ê We were hopeful about
your potential leadership on this pressingÊ environmental case. That phone
call was the last time I talked toÊ Terence. One week later, on the day he
was to return to New York, heÊ and his companions were kidnapped by
guerrillas who are allegedly onÊ friendly terms with Occidental. One week
after that, the bound bodies ofÊ these three human rights workers were found
splayed and disfigured byÊ rounds of bullets just across the Venezuelan
border.

You came to my attention again during the blurry week following the
murders. In response to the appalling delay of the US State DepartmentÊ to
fly the bodies home from Caracas, the families received word that the
Office of the Vice President was trying to arrange Air Force transport.Ê I
wondered at that time if you remembered meeting Terence. I was hopefulÊ that
your personal connection to the U'wa struggle would expedite theÊ process of
getting their bodies home. Unfortunately, it was almost aÊ week later before
we met the United cargo plane in Los Angeles carryingÊ Terence's body box.

Seven months later, I read the Wall Street Journal's account of your
family's lucrative inheritance from your father of Occidental PetroleumÊ and
Occidental subsidiary stock and your long-standing personalÊ relationship
with Occidental directors (9/29/99, editorial page). ByÊ then I had
experienced several such smacks of political double speakÊ from most actors
in the Colombian debate. In Washington, RepresentativeÊ Gilman used the
murders of the three American human rights workers asÊ a "wake up call" for
the United States to increase military assistance toÊ the Colombian
military, despite that military's abysmal human rightsÊ record spanning four
decades of escalating civil war during which gunsÊ held by any side have
never proven a viable means toward peacefulÊ resolution (see Washington Post
editorial page, May 22, 1999). InÊ Bogota, on September 21, 1999, the
Colombian Minister of EnvironmentÊ Juan Mayr - himself a former Goldman
Environmental Prize winner -Ê issued the license for Occidental Petroleum to
proceed with drilling theÊ oil under U'wa land. To justify his action, he
claimed theÊ constitutionally-required community consent process and
environmentalÊ review complete, despite the fact that the U'wa community
continues toÊ voice its vehement opposition and have been privy to no such
process ofÊ environmental review. In Los Angeles, on April 30, 1999, at
OccidentalÊ Petroleum headquarters, Public Relations Officer Larry Meriage
heldÊ Terence's mother's hand, calling the guerrilla murderers atrocious,
despite the fact that his company's incipient oil operations in U'waÊ land
are directly responsible for the intensification of violentÊ conflict in the
previously peaceful region. Even given this prevalentÊ political milieu, in
which action wildly contradicts expressed values, IÊ am appalled and
disheartened to see you, America's lead environmentalÊ champion, living the
antithesis of your espoused values by continuingÊ to personally profit from
Occidental Petroleum's exploits.

I am the same age as your daughter. Terence was one year our junior.Ê Like
your daughter, Terence and I looked forward to joining the legalÊ profession
together. We were eager to apply the conflict resolution andÊ community
organizing skills we have gained abroad to help address theÊ wealth of
environmental justice conflicts brewing domestically. LikeÊ your daughter,
Terence and I had a bright future. With unbearableÊ anguish, his family and
friends buried him on his twenty-fifth birthdayÊ last spring. Think how much
brighter your family's prospects, as youÊ enter the candidacy, if you
removed the shadow cast by your family'sÊ complicity in the unspeakable
horrors faced by our family and those ofÊ the U'wa because of Occidental
Petroleum.

I implore you to divest your family from Occidental Petroleum and answer
the requests from the U'wa Defense Working Group, a coalition ofÊ US-based
environmental and human rights organizations, to explain yourÊ position on
that company's actions in the U'wa territory of Colombia.Ê Further, I
beseech you to engage your peers in Washington, at theÊ development banks,
in Bogota, and the private sector in the sincereÊ pursuit of alternatives to
military escalation and natural resourceÊ exploitation as the means to
address Colombia's economic woes. GunsÊ and oil have never spelled
sustainable development or peace. MeasuresÊ such as debt swaps and
demonstrated multilateral commitment toÊ Colombia's locally-driven social
and economic development would moveÊ the country closer to these goals.
Don't let your silence on the U'wa-Ê Occidental conflict - an emblem of the
wider sustainable developmentÊ debate you champion - continue to corrode the
standards you set forÊ the American public with Earth in the Balance.

Look again at what stirred you to work for the earth in the first place.
Take a minute from your campaign, go to the forest, any forest. TakeÊ a walk
alone. Feel the pulse of your heart beating in time with that ofÊ the rivers
running. Feel the soil underfoot, like your musclesÊ stretching, resilient
and alive. Breathe in the blessing of being alive.Ê Think of Terence and the
U'wa working to defend that basic humanÊ right, of life. Think of the
Colombian military last week forcibly removingÊ U'wa families from their
ancestral and legally owned land to provideÊ armed and protected access to
Occidental's equipment and staff houses.Ê Think of the newly granted US
budget for this very Colombian military,Ê the largest sum given in history,
making Colombia the third largestÊ recipient of US military aid. Think twice
about where you have chosenÊ to put not only your family's money, but that
of the taxpayer as well.

Vice President Gore, you should have my vote and that of virtually allÊ of
my peers. We are young doctors, ecologists, policy analysts,Ê teachers,
historians, artists, journalists, public officials, developmentÊ workers,
and lawyers. We work for environmental and social justice.Ê We should be
your constituency. I urge you to demonstrate to usÊ that you deserve it.

Sincerely,

Abby Reyes

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                       Nicholas   Ostler
                           President
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