A looking-glass maze of Ecuadoran courtroom battles that since 2003 has been the $27 billion rain forest pollution lawsuit against Chevron might be blown apart now. The case was originally filed by American lawyers representing tribes living in Ecuador’s Northern Amazon Region, claiming Texaco and then Chevron, which bought the former, was responsible for cleaning up extensive environmental damage from drilling in the area.
Last week, Chevron released undercover videos apparently showing the presiding case judge and officials of Ecuador’s ruling party negotiating a $3 million bribe from two supposed businessmen. The money was to be divided between the judge and Ecuador’s “presidency” in exchange for lucrative clean-up contracts after the judge’s “guaranteed” guilty verdict arrived this autumn. Chevron delivered its video recordings to the Ecuador national prosecutor, calling for disqualification of the judge and annulment of all his prior rulings. Ecuador’s attorney general promises a full investigation.
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This long, convoluted lawsuit hardly matches the stereotype of big, greedy corporations heedlessly despoiling Mother Earth. The suit never alleges that Chevron itself ever even drilled for oil in Ecuador. There were at one time as many as 400 open pits filled with tons of untreated oil sludge that filtered into jungle rivers and streams, but Texaco did those before quitting its Ecuadorian operations in 1992, nine years before being bought by Chevron. And Texaco drilled wells for 18 years as junior partner to the state-owned Petroecuador, which today pumps oil from those fields.
Texaco agreed with Petroecuador to divide the clean-up responsibilities, and from 1995 to 1998, spent $40 million restoring some 163 pollution sites. In 1998, Ecuador’s energy secretary signed a document stating Texaco “totally executed” its part of the agreement and relieving the company from future government claims. Testimony before Ecuador’s legislature verified that the remaining toxic sludge pits were Petroecuador’s responsibility. But those facts failed to prevent deep-pocketed Chevron, California’s largest company, from being dragged into a civil suit by 48 indigenous named plaintiffs acting for the Amazon Defense Coalition of environmental organizations, which would get all the money.
The case has ground on for some 15 years, with the latest skirmishes arguing the impartiality and qualifications of the Ecuadorian court-appointed expert who concluded that Chevron should pay $27 billion for contaminating water and soil and creating health hazards. Ecuador’s unique legal system – no juries, only written testimony and revolving judges — has stacked the deck against Chevron so blatantly that even the company’s lead Ecuadorian attorney has said he doesn’t expect to win. But whatever the final outcome, it is now clear at least some Amazon rain forest “protectors” themselves lack clean hands.
