Colombian U'wa Indigenous Leaders Visit US, Urging Investors and US Congress to Respect Human Rights

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Market Watch

Colombian U'wa Indigenous Leaders Visit US, Urging Investors and US Congress to Respect Human Rights
Last update: 1:45 p.m. EST Nov. 20, 2008

WASHINGTON, Nov 20, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire via COMTEX/ -- More than 15,000 indigenous march on Bogota in Opposition to the US Colombia Free Trade Agreement

As the debate about the Colombia Free Trade Agreement makes headlines, two leaders of U'wa indigenous community arrived in Washington, DC this week, to call attention to the threats facing dozens of indigenous peoples in Colombia in conflicts over land and resources. The U'wa called attention to indigenous mobilizations in Colombia where some 15,000 are marching to Bogota -- to protest their government's backsliding on indigenous land rights in attempt to make way for the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

The U'wa met with Congressional offices, including Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, and leading human rights groups to provide an update on the long standing conflict over oil drilling on their lands. The U'wa warned that the trade agreement would worsen human rights abuses and environmental destruction in their country.

Last week the U'wa met with investment firms in New York urging them not to buy shares of the Colombian state oil company Ecopetrol which they say is threatening the future of their people. The U'wa spoke with representatives of JPMorgan Chase to voice their concerns over the bank's underwriting of Ecopetrol shares on the NY Stock Exchange.



Read more: http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/Colombian-Uwa-Indigenous-Leaders-Visit/story.aspx?guid=%7BE197685F-C993-4D5C-BD69-86152E3519E1%7D

[Nambe]

1. This corporate GOP backed government should fall soon.

No doubt they will show up in huge Florida mansions soon.