Ecuador is a well known banana republic under the thumb of the US bipolar central and latin America policy..
Or so the PR machine of Chevron/Texaco oil company would have you believe.
But apparently it can also deliver a measure of justice…
Especially right after the Ecuadorean court of Lago Agrio after thirty years of legal battles, ordered Chevron to pay the clean up costs and the health support and simple mitigation costs for the indigenous Peoples affected by the sky rocketing cancer rates and related toxic caused illnesses.
From 1972 to 1993, Texaco operated development of the Lago Agrio oil field in Ecuador. Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous residents accused Texaco (now Chevron), of making residents ill and damaging forests and rivers by discharging 18 billion gallons of formation water into the rainforest, without any remediation. They sued Chevron for extensive environmental damage caused by these operations, which have sickened thousands of Ecuadorians and polluted the Amazon rainforest. The Ecuadorian court could have imposed a legal penalty of up to $28 billion in a class action lawsuit filed on behalf of Amazonian villagers in the region. Chevron claimed that agreements with the Ecuadorian Government exempted the company from any liabilities.
In mid-February 2011, a court in Ecuador fined Chevron $8.6 billion over pollution to the country’s Amazon region by Texaco between 1972 and 1992, with campaigners claiming loss of crops and farm animals as well as increased local cancer rates. The action was brought against Chevron by 30,000 Ecuadorean people. The trial begun in 2003. The total penalty imposed on Chevron is $9.5 billion as it was ruled that the oil company must pay an additional 10 per cent legally mandated reparations fee. And although $27 billion was the total conservative sum estimated to mitigate the immediate pollution effects and as such requested by the plaintiffs, it was only $8.6 billion, that was eventually granted by the court. A total of 29% of the requested damages was all the court granted.
But even so the Ecuadorean aboriginal Peoples expressed happiness that Chevron was declared guilty, though they also expressed dismay that the award of $8.6 billion would not be enough to make up for the damage caused by the oil company.
However, the Environmental Parliament activists and the Environmental Court jurors and senior attorneys, wish that becomes a Cause Celebre. And it can be this case that can serve as a precedent against pollution causing businesses being carried as a matter of course by firms in the developing countries around the world.
Even the NGO Amazon Watch described the outcome of the Ecuadoread Amazonas oil pollution case as “unprecedented”.
But despite the guilty verdict it is considered unlikely that any of the fine will be paid. Chevron not only refuses to pay up, but it also claims that it has no international obligation to pay the fine, and wants to set a precedent of it’s own in disobeying the law and the jurisdiction of the Ecuadorean court. They want to send a message on behalf of all the oil company majors to the world community, claiming that they are untouchables and above sovereign countries. Maybe that was the case but am afraid it is the wrong message to send to countries like Nigeria, China, and Brazil that are next in line to bring beneficial pollution action with citizen claimants against multinational oil companies.
But in this case Chevron can evade the law for a while because it claims, that it has no assets in Ecuador for the government to seize.
And this will play on for a while because, this verdict only became possible, after that kind of strong Justice ”Polluter Pays” regime, was first delivered in the US [via White House pressure] against British Petroleum this year. BP which was responsible for the Macondo gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster was made to pay $20 Billion to the US citizens and businesses and states damaged by the spill and in clean up costs.
And of course this ruling came to life only after the fall of Cheney’s bush administration which had seen many members of Chevron doing double duty within the State department in the dark years of the frat boys ruling America, that allowed the oil majors to run oil mining without any supervision or risk abatement. With Condoleezza Rice being the Chevron Board of Directors member responsible for Public Policy, and Cheney’s Department of State head, it was easy to exert pressure on Ecuador against any judgement coming out that would shame Chevron. Very much like the Enron boys and girls, it was the Chevron boys and girls that ruled the oil disaster house and they caused damages shielded from prosecution…
Mainly because again their Halliburton Boss ruled the White House sharing some brotherly love.
And the Amazon destruction caused by Chevron, is so massive that the Environmental Parliament and the Environmental Court described it as much worse than the destruction caused in the Gulf of Mexico by BP. And although the resultant devastation wrought to the coastal southern United States of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida by BP was huge, this Amazon destruction is unfathomable. Because the destruction caused on Amazon’s jungles, wetlands, fresh water supplies [surface & underground] and riverine environments by Texaco/Chevron Oil is completely irreversible within this century, that makes this case unique.
And is the result of 50 years of Texaco/Chevron’s oil mining pollution, unprotected oil spills regime and attendant run away profits, that several indigenous groups in Ecuador have been decimated and more than 9,000 have perished and at least just three times as many people are at significant risk of contracting cancer in the coming decades, according to reports submitted to the Environmental Court. Scientific evidence submitted during the trial definitively proves that all of Chevron’s 378 well and production sites, most of which were built in the 1970s, are extensively contaminated without ever being capped…
Yet now, after 17 years of intense legal battle, Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States, was found guilty by Ecuadorian courts for massive environmental contamination of the Amazon and was ordered to pay a fine of $9 billion in damages. This represents the largest ever judgment against a US company for environmental contamination and marks the first time that indigenous and farmer communities have successfully won a judgment in foreign courts against an American company for environmental crimes abroad.
From 1964 to 1990 Texaco oil Company, now merged with Chevron and called Chevron/Texaco or simply Chevron, operated a large oil concession in the northeastern region of the Ecuadorian Amazon, reaping billions of dollars in profits before pulling out of Ecuador in 1992.
Chevron has admitted during the long-running trial in both US and Ecuadorian courts that it created a system of oil extraction that led to the deliberate discharge of approximately 18 billion gallons of chemical-laden “water of formation” into the streams and rivers of Ecuador’s Amazon, home to more than six native and primitive, aboriginal indigenous groups.
Over the course of more than two decades of operations, Chevron abandoned more than 900 unlined waste pits gouged out of the jungle floor that leech toxins into soils and streams; contaminated the air by burning the waste pits; dumped oil along roads; and spilled millions of gallons of pure crude from ruptured pipelines. Internal company documents demonstrate that Chevron officials ordered field workers to destroy records of oil spills. The company refused to develop an environmental response plan or pipeline maintenance program, and Chevron never conducted a single health evaluation or environmental impact study despite the obvious harm it was causing.
The historic multi-billion verdict against Chevron, which reported a net profit of $19 billion last year, is a tremendous step forward for the Ecuadorian communities who have been suffering for decades from Chevron’s contamination. However, as expected, oil giant Chevron has vowed to appeal the decision and continue their scorched earth legal and public relations campaign, designed to exhaust the plaintiffs’ resources, portray the case and the courts in Ecuador as corrupt, and, in the end, evade enforcement of the multi-billion verdict.
In the wake of the court ruling, the Goldman Environmental prize winning attorney Pablo Fajardo, who represents the indigenous and farmer communities of the Ecuadorian Amazon, released a statement highlighting Chevron’s “intentional and unlawful contamination of Ecuador’s rainforest”. Here is a brief excerpt: ”Rather than accept responsibility, Chevron has launched a campaign of warfare against the Ecuadorian courts and the impoverished victims of its unfortunate practices. We call on the company to end its polemical attacks and search jointly with the plaintiffs for common solutions. We believe the evidence before the court deserves international respect and the plaintiffs will take whatever actions are appropriate consistent with the law to press the claims to a final conclusion.”
Still, oil industry analysts and environmental law experts have weighed in on the precedent setting nature of the historic ruling in Ecuador.
We believe the fact that the Ecuadorian, Lago Agrio court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs sends a signal to oil companies that, more than ever, they need to be good corporate citizens. The ruling shows that times have changed, and companies need to take environmental concerns seriously.
The case really sends a message that companies operating in the undeveloped world cannot rely on a compliant government or lax environmental rules as a way of permanently insulating themselves from liability.
Since acquiring Texaco in 2001, Chevron’s legal and public relations strategy with respect to Ecuador, has been motivated not only by a desire to avoid a massive multi-billion payout, but also by the broader implications this case has for the future of the global extractive industry. More to the point, Chevron’s scorched earth tactics have been designed to delay and disrupt the outcome of the long-running environmental trial in Ecuador, but also, and perhaps more importantly, to demonstrate clearly to communities around the world that the pursuit of justice against multinational corporations is futile.
But now the judgment is in. Chevron has been found guilty of massive environmental crimes in the Amazon. The San Ramon California, based oil giant has been ordered to pay a multi-billion dollar judgment. But also they have been found guilty in the United States of major crimes against the environment. So for them it is business as usual as it seems from their despicable record. Take for example Chevron’s activities in Richmond, California, which have been the subject of ongoing controversy and even a grand jury investigation, because the Chevron project there, generated over 11 million pounds of toxic materials and caused more than 304 accidents. Chevron’s Richmond refineries paid $540,000 in 1998 for illegally bypassing waste water treatments and failing to notify the public about toxic releases. And overall, and over the years, Chevron is listed as potentially liable for 95 Superfund sites, with funds set aside by the EPA for clean-up oil pollution after their business related activities, within the continental US.
How is that for a repeat offender?
Did Chevron ever accept responsibility or they await EPA or another government body to clean after their mess?
Methinks, that era is over both in the US and internationally.
Will Chevron reform and accept the new rules of the game?
And coincidentally learn to respect the environment and the rule of Law?
Or will it try to dodge it’s responsibilities and trash the environment & the rule of law as it customarily does?
And try to leave the claimants in the lurch?
Relying on the public to pay for the clean up, in essence creating a bail out f another wealthy company stealing the Commons…
Chevron and it’s powerful protectors have been responsible for a lot of political instability in Ecuador over the years too.
Rafael Correa, is now the President in a difficult term and opposed by the US who in the last decade alone removed three popularly elected Presidents.
Ecuador was once considered a relatively stable country, at least in comparison to its Andean neighbors. In the past decade, however, Ecuador has weathered a number of serious political and economic crises. The three last popularly elected presidents of Ecuador did not complete their terms. In 1997, Abdala Bucaram was removed from office after being declared unfit by the legislature amid allegations of misappropriating public funds. In 2000, Jamil Mahuad was ousted by a coup after a prolonged economic crisis led by a junta that included then-army Colonel Lucio Gutierrez. In April 2005, Lucio Gutierrez was removed from office by Ecuador’s congress after weeks of popular protests.
But now Rafael Correa’s Bolivarian style governance is good and his popular mandate, strong. Yet we still see moves being made to dislodge him and replace him with a Pro-US President. Incidentally this would help Chevron dodge their responsibilities and avoid judgement and paying the fine completely. Coincidence?
And although Chevron is insured against such judgements, and the Insurance companies would have to pay – leaving Chevron’s balance sheet unaffected – they still refuse to pay and choose to ignore the verdict and fight the truth.
And in this along with the rest of the oil industry, the immense lobby machine and the never ceasing PR cotton mouths, of Chevron, will continue encouraging the other oil majors to undermine the rule of law in Ecuador and the world at large, while denying payment of this and any other judgement.
Regardless if that means Chevron willingly condemns the affected Peoples of the Amazon to extremely short lifetimes, still births, teratogenesis, many other catastrophic pollution related illnesses and horrors amid years of continued suffering.
And as Chevron plays hardball and flat out denies payment to the Ecuadorean indigenous aboriginal people – one wonders – why do they think they can be rid of this just judgement?
Where is the leadership of a vast company here?
A very successful and rich oil major company that can well afford to pay and even clean up, is unwilling to based on ideology?
Or their unwillingness to comply with this judgement is based on their looking at Latin America as less of a mosaic of sovereign nations with their own courts and rule of law?
Is the CEO of Chevron John S. Watson, chairman of the board now and chief executive officer of the company, [past vice Chair] willingly flouting the rule of law?
And isn’t this the same policy and the same precedent set by his predecessor David J. O’Reilly, who retired from the company in 2009 and its board of Directors?
A board of Directors,
Are they just criminals at the head of the company or some kind of corporate colonialists claiming the Ecuadorean Courts aren’t worthy to be listened to?
Is justice impossible to be delivered for claimants against Chevron?
Where does that place the US and it’s current State Department?
But the basic question was posed by the Environmental Court team assisting the Aboriginal indigenous tribes in their pursuit of Justice:
”If the US based corporate giant Chevron denies payment to the aboriginal Peoples, to allow them to deal with their health catastrophes, it surely condemns them to certain death and disappearance as Peoples.
And is not this practice GENOCIDE ?
Willfully exterminating whole tribes of people?
Is the Chevron leadership willing to be responsible not only for their catastrophic pollution but also for genocide?
And is this the long term plan of Chevron to deal with the problem of the sick Ecuadorean people?
Let them all perish so there are no claimants left? Ergo no payment would be forthcoming…
Intentionally killing off your opponents by default is a major crime. And when these are complete tribes of Peoples, it is simply called GENOCIDE.
And isn’t this an issue for the International Court of Justice in Hague? ”
Yours,
Pano
PS:
And the question to all of us is: How far have we come as a people?
Will the 21st century be a time where the greed of a few tramples the lives of the many and especially the poor and the bottom of the pyramid indigenous ones?
Does might make right?
Can the corporate polluters avoid the rule of law?
Who are the people who decide to flout the law lie common criminals?
And if they happen to be the leaders of a corporate giant, is this merry band of wealthy Genocidaires happy to pretend to be real corporate Leaders and are we going to let them off the hook?
Let us remind them that Corporate leadership holds serious responsibility and in turn carries with it the burden of being accountable to shareholders, the community and the people.
And with so many of the Board of Directors of Chevron living in the San Francisco Bay area, it is just cause for protest, picketing and hunger strikes in front of their homes and private offices and of course the San Ramon Chevron HQ.
As of February 2011 this is the composition of the Board of Directors of Chevron and the ones most responsible for the heinous crimes of Chevron and it’s unwillingness to observe the payment for reparations of the court imposed fine for their fifty years of pollution:
Give each and every one of them a memorable and long lasting protest in a publicly shaming method of civil disobedience.
Bring their malfeasance to their homes and families for that is a tiny small measure for what they’ve brought to the thousands of families in Ecuador over last half century:
John Watson (Chairman & CEO), Samuel Armacost, Linnet F. Deily, Robert Denham, Robert James Eaton, Sam Ginn, Franklyn Jenifer, Sam Nunn, Donald Rice, Peter Robertson, Charles Shoemate, Ronald Sugar, Carl Ware and Condoleezza Rice who is the most powerful former member of the board of directors, and also headed Chevron’s committee on public policy until she resigned on January 15, 2001, to become National Security Advisor to President George W. Bush and subsequent Head of the State Department.
Can we force them to see reason?
Will these people listen?
Or will their greed trump justice, the people’s will and the rule of law?
Seems like the stakes are high….
