Documents Reveal Chevron's Changing Tune In Ecuador Rainforest Destruction Case

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Huffington Post

Documents Reveal Chevron's Changing Tune In Ecuador Rainforest Destruction Case
First Posted: 03/17/11 03:32 PM Updated: 03/17/11 03:32 PM

New documents uncovered in the ongoing legal battle over Chevron/Texaco’s destruction of the Ecuadorian rainforest show that, while Chevron recently labeled the guilty verdict and $18 billion fine leveled against its Texaco unit by an Ecuadorian court as “illegitimate and unenforceable,” it was in fact the oil company that lobbied fiercely to have the case moved out of U.S. courts to the Ecuadorian justice system.

DeSmogBlog has reviewed corporate memos, letters and records of meetings documenting the oil giant’s efforts to have the case moved from New York - where it was originally filed by the plaintiffs - to Ecuador, where the company hoped to use its influential connections within the government at the time to have the case dismissed.

Further, Chevron’s accusation that the plaintiffs conspired with Ecuadorian judicial and government officials is quizzical in light of the documents revealing that, in fact, it was the oil company’s representatives who held ethically questionable meetings with government officials.

While the plaintiffs in the case did meet with Ecuadorian government officials, they did so to report a crime - the falsification of a remediation agreement based on test samples taken at the so-called “remediated” sites during the trial.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/17/chevron-ecuador-trial-documents_n_837261.html

[WhiteTara]

1. please keep us updated on this case

Judi Lynn. I'd like to make sure they have to pay or how they wriggle out of it.
:hi:

[SpiralHawk]

2. "We gots them olde-fashioned RepubliCorp Family Values. Smirk." - Chevron (R)

[EFerrari]

3. Thanks, Judi Lynn. n/t

[jwirr]

4. These damn big energy companies have commercial after commercial

on TV telling us how they are working for environmental issues. I cringe every time I see the lies. What they do not understand is that we know we are being lied to and only get angrier. When we start understanding that they are not working in our best interest that is when we will start getting things done on our own.

[glinda]

5. They run constantly around Rachel's and Ed's Shows.

[jwirr]

6. I know - they know we are watching.

[humus]

9. the medium is the message.

[indimuse]

7. KNR! n/t

[Judi Lynn]

8. Chevron's Outlandish Fraud Charges Deprive Ecuadorians of Justice

Chevron's Outlandish Fraud Charges Deprive Ecuadorians of Justice
By Michael Busch, March 20, 2011

Just weeks after an Ecuadoran court handed down its landmark decision against American multinational Chevron, the oil giant has filed an appeal to prevent having to pay billions in environmental damages wrought in the Amazonian rain forest. The court had ruled that Chevron pay a $9.5 billion fine for the destruction Texaco—which merged with Chevron in 2001—inflicted on the Amazon through its operations, a decision the company dismissed as corrupt. In a statement released last Friday, Chevron reported that it’s prepared to demonstrate “the pattern of fraud by the plaintiffs’ lawyers, supporters and others that has corrupted the trial, as well as the numerous legal and factual defects in the judgment.”

The appeal comes as no surprise. Chevron moved immediately before the verdict last month to initiate proceedings in The Hague designed to block the enforcement of any ruling against the company and extend arbitration. The oil multinational also filed papers in the United States to affect a similar outcome and, according to the BBC, accused “the claimants and lawyers in the case of racketeering, tampering with witnesses and obstructing justice.”

Whatever the result, Chevron’s challenge spells the indefinite suspension of justice for local Ecuadorians suffering decades-old environmental and human rights abuses.

The roots of the case can be traced back decades. Texaco, now owned by Chevron, first prospected for oil in the Amazon in 1964, quickly finding enormous reserves and contracting with national oil companies to extract their find. In the process, the multinational reportedly dumped nearly 20 billion gallons of toxic sludge in the jungle and was responsible for another 16 billion gallons of oil spilled over the course of its twenty-five year presence in the country. The damage sustained was extensive, poisoning the region’s soil and water and, according to plaintiffs in the case, causing a spiking rise in cancer deaths and birth defects. In 1993, lawyers representing a group of 30,000 affected Ecuadorans brought suit against Chevron in a US court to seek damages.

More:
http://www.fpif.org/blog/chevrons_outlandish_fraud_charges_deprive_ecuadorians_of_justice?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+FPIF+%28Foreign+Policy+In+Focus+%28All+News%29%29