Tibu, Colombia – Hundreds of Bari Indians, most clad in loincloths and carrying bows and arrows, came down from the hills in their first march ever Thursday to demand that the state- owned oil company stop drilling on sacred land abutting their reservation.
The 700 protesters rallied in one of Colombia’s most war-ravaged regions on Columbus Day – commemorated as “Día de la Raza” or “Indigenous People’s Day” in much of Latin America – to remind the world that they have been decimated and forced into isolation by oil drilling.
“Don’t forget that this is our territory,” a Bari chieftain, 55- year-old Atrigbuanina, intoned as the Indians laid a plaque in front of Tibu’s heavily fortified police station. “Why is the Colombian state not respecting our rights?”
Ecopetrol, the state-owned oil company, is racing to find oil deposits so Colombia can avoid losing petroleum self-sufficiency by 2011.
The company recently said it wants to sell a 20 percent share to a foreign investor to help spur exploration.
But the Indians demand a halt to exploratory drilling. They had hoped for a meeting in Tibu with a government delegation, but authorities canceled it abruptly, concerned that the march had been infiltrated by rebels. State government and local military and police leaders attended the march nonetheless, as did human-rights groups and U.N. representatives.
The Bari chose Oct. 12, which commemorates Christopher Columbus’ first voyage to the Americas, because it’s the date Indian- rights groups consider the start of a genocide against their peoples.
Activists marked the day in Bolivia, Venezuela, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.
In Venezuela, a pilgrimage honoring Indian goddess Maria Lionza was timed to coincide with the day Columbus first set foot on Venezuelan soil in 1498. In the Dominican Republic, residents held a ceremony at Columbus’ purported tomb.
