Colombian Indians Seize Occidental Test Site

About 200 militant U’wa Indians in Colombia have seized the Gibraltar-1 test site, an area they claim as ancestral homelands, in an effort to prevent Occidental Petroleum Corp. from drilling for oil there. They pledged to “defend Mother Earth to the death.” The 500,000-acre exploration area in northeast Colombia may harbor up to 2.5 billion barrels of crude and could ensure the country’s energy needs well into the next century. Los Angeles-based Occidental won approval in late September to begin drilling for crude there after a seven-year legal wrangle over indigenous land rights blocked work. But in a strongly worded communique, Roberto Perez, head of the 5,000-strong U’wa community, called for Occidental and the government to drop the plan. Perez did not spell out what measures the U’wa would take, but the community has in the past threatened mass suicide if the oil industry encroaches on what the U’wa consider ancestral lands. An Occidental spokesman said the company is still evaluating the impact of the occupation, and he declined to speculate on any possible consequences of the protest. He said Occidental plans to sink the first test drill in the spot “sometime next year.” Separately, Occidental said it agreed to buy Atlantic Richfield Co.’s Long Beach unit, which produces about 30,000 barrels of oil a day from the Wilmington field, for an undisclosed price.