In 2002, the U'wa's, an indigenous tribe in the Colombian highlands won a battle against Occidental Petroleum. The tension during the legal dispute for oil drilling rights on the American Indian land culminated into a fever pitch when a large majority of the U'wa's threatened mass suicide if the plans from Occidental were not scrapped. The entire event tarnished the hope for Presidency of then Vice-President Al Gore and his bid on the Democrat Party nomination in 2000. Al Gore had inherited a minority holding in Occidental Petroleum from his father. Despite the withdraw of Occidental Petroleum from the U'wa's ancestral mountain land, the tribes are still threatened by the prospect of another company picking up where O.P. left off.

The victory against Occidental came once leaders of the tribe took their issues and concerns to the investment firms in the United States that funded much of Occidentals activities. In the end, the firms divested millions of capital of support from the Occidental Petroleum projects. U'wa members issued a press release shortly after the victory "The money king is only an illusion. Capitalism is blind and barbaric. It buys consciences, governments, peoples, and nations. It poisons the water and the air. It destroys everything. And to the U'wa it says that we are crazy, but we want to continue to be crazy if it means we can continue on our dear mother Earth.