South American Wayúu Indigenous Leader Says Petroleum Companies, Multinationals Can Live In Harmony With The Environment & Humanity—If They Follow Certain Principles
The Wayúu indigenous people inhabit the La Guajira Penninsula, a land mass that forms a natural border between Colombia and Venezuela. The arid, almost desert-like terrain is sparsely populated and isolated from the rest of Colombia by Colombia’s highest mountain, the snow-capped Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta.
The area is also isolated politically, suffering from neglect and a lack of investment by Colombia’s national government in Bogotá. Bordering Venezuela, the picturesque, sparsely populated region is attractive to violent criminals, land thieves, smugglers and fugitives from justice in either Venezuela or Colombia. Many local politicians in the departmental capital of Riohacha are notoriously corrupt, often going from office straight to prison after conviction.
Exacerbating the situation, the area has been suffering a severe drought that started in 2013 and shows no signs of abating. Adding to the climate challenge, the collapse of neighboring Venezuela’s economy has sent thousands of refugees, often penniless (peso-less), fleeing across the border. La Guajira is the first Colombian territory they come to when crossing via the border town and contraband bazaar of Maicao.
The land, in one way or another, is rejecting us and telling us that we haven’t respected it, that we haven’t followed our traditions, that we have deviated, and that it’s necessary to go back to our traditions, to rescue them, and for that there needs to be a certain type of inter-cultural exchange that people are unaware of.
The region and the people that are struggling to support themselves despite national government neglect, local government corruption and theft of what few resources do get through, now are doing their best to share their sparse resources with their neighbors who have fled into the peninsula to escape economic collapse, political oppression, and starvation across the border in Venezuela.
La Guajira is not without resources though. Vast natural gas fields lay under the desert surface, and US based petroleum supergiant Chevron (NYSE: CVX) has been in the area for four decades. In fact, Chevron’s gas wells lie in the heart of Wayúu lands, and most importantly, the company is present with the blessing and the consent of the Wayúu people. Chevron has been a source of employment and revenue for the Wayúu, and now has opened a food bank to help with the economic, climate, and social challenges that confront La Guajira.
Monica Patricia Barros Lopez, leader of the Epinayúu clan of the Wayúu people was recently in Chevron Texaco’s Bogotá regional headquarters to speak to dignitaries, including Colombia’s First Lady Maria Juliana Ruiz de Duque about sustainability, the challenges residents of La Guajira face, and the new food bank in La Guajira, supported by Chevron Texaco, The Diocese of Riohacha, The Sustainability Project For The Wayúu Community, and many corporate and distribution partners donating food and finances to support the joint effort.
Finance Colombia executive editor Loren Moss was able to speak with Ms. Barros after her talk and panel discussion to better understand the situation in La Guajira, but also to understand the keys to the successful relationship between Chevron and the Wayúu community, and to learn if there are lessons that other multinational companies can apply in Colombia and around the globe.
Finance Colombia: The Wayúu is an indigenous community here in Colombia. Could you tell me a little about the history of the Wayúu?
Monica Barros: Our history goes back thousands of years. We have survived through time thanks to the deep-rooted philosophy that we have; a harmony between the land where we live, that we have inherited. That’s what compels us to be a certain way, The territory itself where we are [compels us], a territory that has survived in spite of the inclement weather, of the changes that we been through regarding industrialization. But first of all, we want to keep our traditions, we want to keep being what we are.
Finance Colombia: The Wayúu people have always been self-sufficient, you’ve always lived of the land, you harvest your own crops and whatever you need to live on. When did the difficulties with the harvests and the water start? What are the origins of the challenges you’ve been facing in the La Guajira Penninsula in recent years?
Monica Barros: This is because in one way or another, some traditions have been lost. In general, when we built our houses, we asked the trees that were there for permission. We told the tree that sadly we had to cut them that day or ask them for permission because we wanted to build our house there. So, we always asked for permission so that our existence was harmonious with the environment. Nowadays, the young people, the new generation, the new industrial projects don’t do this harmonization.
The land, in one way or another, is rejecting us and telling us that we haven’t respected it, that we haven’t followed our traditions, that we have deviated, and that it’s necessary to go back to our traditions, to rescue them, and for that there needs to be a certain type of inter-cultural exchange that people are unaware of. If I don’t let you know, you will never know that to build, to develop a territory you need to ask permission from the spirits that are around.
Finance Colombia: I know that Chevron has been a neighbor of yours for many years and this new food bank, this initiative that they’re doing there, what’s the importance of it for the Wayúu people there in La Guajira?
Monica Barros: There’s a very important thing to highlight about Chevron. Chevron is a North American company that, despite its administrative policies, adapted itself to our cultural traditions, and that before starting a process of negotiation said that they had to start an inter-cultural process, to get to know our traditions, and that’s the reason why today we have a good relationship, because developing our relationship [between Chevron & the Wayúu] wasn’t traumatic. since they first learned from us what could be done and what couldn’t be done, the limits of what is respectful and what isn’t.
Nowadays we can say that Chevron is an ally that has been absorbed into our family as a friend and as a relative, with whom we have made new alliances, new strategies, new knowledge, and basically the example of a good relationship.
Finance Colombia: What is the key? We have readers that are foreign investors, that constantly are investing more and more in Colombia. What is the key for these companies, especially the big ones, the international ones: How can they be profitable, but to make those profits in harmony with the land, and also with the local communities, with the local people? What is the key? What message would you send to these multinational companies? If they want to do business, how can do it correctly, how can they do it fairly? How can do it right and bring benefits for everyone: for the land, for the communities, for the governments, and also for the investors?
Monica Barros: The most important thing, like I’ve always said, is investing in the relationship, the inter-cultural exchange, developing administrative policies and practices of coexistence. When these spaces are created and there are investors and people that want to support us, they should always ask how they can come in, how do we think that the interaction has to be, what the navigation route that we as the Wayúu community, as entrepreneurs suggest they follow, since they come with a different background, a different vision. The primordial thing is the communication, the inter-cultural aspect, and to keep a good relationship.
Nowadays we can say that Chevron is an ally that has been absorbed into our family as a friend and as a relative, with whom we have made new alliances, new strategies, new knowledge, and basically the example of a good relationship.
Finance Colombia: What role does education and employment play in this?
Monica Barros: In general, those things should always go together. There always has to be exchanges regarding education, regarding organizational structure, regarding survival, inter-cultural exchanges, because the most important thing here is to exchange your vision for my mission, and we then sit down to talk about how we’re going to proceed. Like I tell you, we’re deeply-rooted, we’re very traditionalist, generally we don’t change a lot of what we have as traditions, but we’re open for dialogue, the primordial thing here is the dialogue, to be able to reason and so there can be productive processes between the companies and the community.
Finance Colombia: What is your role in the community?
Monica Barros: I have a Wayúu-Epinayuu foundation, we’re trying to get organized to best channel and direct the aid coming in, and so within this inter-cultural exchange we can have channels of communication that don’t go through the government as an intermediary, but more direct between the company and the community, between the person and the community, without intermediaries.
Finance Colombia: Excellent. Thank you and much success to your efforts. You’ve been very generous with your time.