Colombia: Exxon subsidiary Intercor attacks community at Tabaco again

Colombia: Exxon subsidiary Intercor attacks community at Tabaco again (with extra urgent action on Armando Perez)

In October, 2000, Richard Solly and Roger Moody of the Mines and Communities Network visited the small community of Tabaco in the department of La Guajira, Colombia, to assess the impact of Intercor's huge coal strip mine, El Cerrejon Norte, on the community's human rights and immediate environment. Intercor is 100% owned by US-based corporate giant ExxonMobil. The company wants the whole community at Tabaco 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.

Now Intercor has struck again, demolishing more houses in the village. Personnel from Intercor, accompanied by police, entered the community and bulldozed more houses in the week of December 9th, 2001.

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 Katherine's House, Kingsway, London WC2.
Email: hilaryfaulkner@exxonmobil.com.
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.
Email: rdh@presidencia.gov.co.
Fax: +57 1 336 2109/337 1351/286 7434/286 6842.

Please send copies to:
Richard Solly: richard.solly@talk21.com,
Colombia Solidarity Campaign: colombia_sc@hotmail.com,
Armando Perez Araujo (the community's lawyer): perar@hotmail.com