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Title: latest abuses by Exxon at Tabaco,
Columbia
From: "Richard Solly"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Dear friends,
I am sending you the notes (below) that I took at a community
meeting in Tabaco, La Guajira, in October, 2001, at which residents
told me about the demolition of their homes by Intercor (100% owned by
Exxon) on August 9th.
I learnt yesterday that the company, with police, have just gone
into the community a second time and demolished more homes. If you
can, please send messages to Exxon (either at the UK subsidiary
address given below or in your own country) and to the President of
Colombia, demanding that the rights of the people of Tabaco be
respected, that if they have to move they should receive a relocation
package enabling them to move as a whole community to an alternative
site where they can continue to live by farming. The Intercor
compensation package of 2,400,000 pesos (just over US$1000 or £700)
is completely inadequate and will only lead to homelessness and
unemployment.
Exxon:
Ansel Condray, Chairman, Exxon UK, St Ketherine's House,
Kingsway, London WC2.
Phone +44 (0)20 7412 4585 Fax: +44 (0)20 7412 4133.
President of Colombia:
Doctor Andres Pastrana Arango, President of the Republic, Palacio
de Narino, Santafe de Bogota DC.
Fax: +57 1 336 2109/337 1351/286 7434/286 6842.
Please send copies to:
Thank you.
Richard Solly.
Notes on a visit by Richard Solly of the Mines and Communities
Network to Tabaco, La Guajira, Colombia, on 20th October
2001
In October, 2000, I visited Tabaco with Roger Moody of the Mines
and Communities Network, to assess the impact of Intercor's huge
coal strip mine, El Cerrejon Norte, on the community's human rights
and immediate environment. The company wants the whole community to
move out so that the strip mine can expand. Intercor's pressure on
the community increased during 2001, and on August 9th 2001 agents of
the company, assisted by Colombian police and military, demolished 29
of the houses in the community, wrecking their surrounding fruit trees
and gardens, confiscating people's possessions and injuring several
of those who resisted.
On 20th and 21st October, a workshop was held in Tabaco by the
Cartagena-based representative of the Proceso de Comunidades Negras, a
national organisation of African-Colombians campaigning for their
rights under the Colombian Constitution. The aim was to inform the
local people about the history of people of African descent in
Colombia and about their legal rights. The workshop was preceded by a
brief community meeting in which residents were informed about the
progress of their legal case against Intercor and of actions taken by
solidarity organisations in Britain and the USA; and residents told me
about the events of August 9th. I also had the opportunity to
photograph some of the damage done to people's houses by the
company.
Points made during the Community Meeting
During the demolition, Intercor workers took people's household
goods and personal possessions and kept them. This matter was to be
taken to the Fiscalia in Riohacha because it was illegal. Armando
Perez Araujo had met with the Minister of the Interior who had agreed
that the actions of the Judge on the day of the demolitions were
illegal.
[The Minister was also informed that most of the inhabitants of
Tabaco are African-Colombians, which gives them particular rights
under the Constitution. The people of Tabaco have not previously
claimed these rights because they did not know about them. There is a
national office of African-Colombian affairs.]
During the demolition, some of the inhabitants of Tabaco were
beaten with clubs. Some of those whose houses were demolished were
sick, including the children of community leader Jose Julio Perez. One
of the women said that a man's head was badly wounded by a wooden
club and his daughter, who was trying to help her father, was also
attacked by the police, who beat her leg with wooden clubs.
Emilio Perez was attacked by fifteen men - either policemen or
Intercor security personnel - as soon as he left his house. He was
clubbed unconscious and left on the ground. He spent eight days in
hospital and still suffers from bad headaches and forgetfulness.
Agents of the company demolished 29 houses before stopping. They
threatened to demolish more and to come back and demolish the school
and other public buildings. It may only have been the people's
resistance that stopped them destroying more. This shows that it was
not a legally enforced juridical process but a form of pressure and
threat, which makes the Judge's involvement even more
remarkable.
Another woman was hit by a rock in her side, which still hurts
her. Her husband was attacked too. He fought back, and because of his
agility in struggling against his attackers, they said that he must be
a guerrilla - a false accusation which, in the current circumstances
in Colombia, could lead to police reprisals or paramilitary attack.
The police attempted to wound his eyes, which became covered in blood
as they beat him. He recovered.
Intercor had also been threatening to dig up the cemetery and
move the bodies, but there were no details given of these
threats.
Intercor was offering each homeowner 2,400,000 pesos in
compensation for moving and losing their houses and land. This is a
little over US$1,000 or £700. Even at Colombian prices, little could
be bought with this sum - it would certainly not compensate for the
loss of livelihood and community which residents are facing.
There were originally more than 300 families living in Tabaco.
The community had grown up over a period of just over a century, on
the initiative of its inhabitants, who moved to the area when local
conflicts among its original Wayuu inhabitants had left it
depopulated. The people of Tabaco enjoy good relationships with the
local Wayuu community at Tamaquitos, a few kilometres away. But the
local municipal authorities, the Alcaldia of Hatonuevo, made
regulations about how Tabaco should be laid out, then claimed the
existing roads (constructed by its inhabitants) as public spaces, then
stated that many of the community's houses were illegally
situated.
During the demolition, the houses of those perceived as leaders
of resistance to Intercor were demolished first, then the houses of
those who followed those leaders. The house of one family that had
been friendly to the company was left standing while the next house
was destroyed. The process was clearly discriminatory.
The general situation in Tabaco:
Armando Perez's visit to the Fiscal General (Interior Ministry)
in Bogota gave him hope that the Judge responsible for authorising the
illegal demolition of people's houses in Tabaco would be prosecuted
and jailed. The Minister of the Interior spoke supportively of a
proper relocation programme. But the residents are getting desperate
because of their dire economic situation, and people are selling out
one by one to Intercor. The company is exerting psychological pressure
on people, contacting them individually and promising a payment of
2,400,000 pesos if they repudiate Armando Perez as their lawyer and
move out. The sum is wholly inadequate to enable people to move to
premises where they can live and continue farming but the company says
that it cannot and will not pay more and that the community's
expectations are completely unrealistic. People feel that they are
faced with a choice between inadequate compensation and no
compensation. Unless there is demonstrable progress soon on the legal
and campaigning front, the majority of residents may well sell out and
leave. Often, if a family believes that it has got the best deal
possible under the circumstances, it will not remain in solidarity
with those struggling with the company. Intercor knows this and
exploits it deliberately. These tactics have already paid off at Old
Oreganal, which Roger and I visited in October 2000: the whole
community has now moved away - even the President of the Relocation
Committee, which was struggling for a better deal from the company,
has sold out and moved. This is why international solidarity is
crucial.
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