Petroleum moves ahead in their ancestral territory.
The U'wa claim fundamental rights to the integrity of their territory, culture and life by virtue of being born within the territory, as were their ancestors. The action threatened by the U'wa is not without U'wa precedent. According to their oral history, many of the U'wa ancestors avoided Spanish slavery 400 years ago by walking off a 1,400 foot precipice the Cliff of Glory to their death. The land control issue is not a remote or academic one. Land ownership, or the lack thereof, is often fundamental to structure of societies and economies.