Texaco In Ecuador

In 1993 was filed the first lawsuit against Texaco by a group of Ecuadorian citizens that lived in the “Oriente” region, the lawsuit was filed at the US federal court the exact name of the case is Aguinda vs Texaco, one year exactly after a group of Peruvian that lived in the exact same region the “Oriente” but in Peru has filed another lawsuit in the US federal court against Texaco with the name of was Jota vs. Texaco. The complaints allegated the same thing, between 1964 and 1992 the Texaco oil exploit operation contaminated and polluted the rivers and rainforest located in Ecuador and Peru, the result of this was environmental damage and the consequences in the health of the people who live in this rainforests and rivers. Then in 2003 another lawsuit was put against Texaco again but this time it wasn’t Texaco it was Chevron because Chevron acquired Texaco in Ecuador, this lawsuit was in Ecuador and the allegations were basically the same, that the land where Texaco did their oil operations activities was severely contaminated the environment, just that this time they also alleged that because of this contamination by Texaco the rates of cancer as other very serious health problems had increased in the, residents of the region affected by this oil operations of exploit. And independent expert of environment was sent to the affected area at the beginning of 2008 this expert recommend to the court that Texaco should pay around $7 to 16 billion so they can compensate for the pollution caused in this area, the expert was sent again but in November of 2008 and he increased the numbers to 27 billions of dollars. Also in 2008 Chevron reported to the US Government that they should end all the preferences with Ecuador because of this lawsuit they received. The case begin to be weird. New allegations of judicial misconduct appear and were filed, this was a serious matter, so serious that the judge in charge of the lawsuit recused himself off the case and a new judge was assigned to the case. A documentary named “Crude” that showed how Texaco/Chevron exploit the land in a dangerous and unsafe way was asked to be shown to the judge, and then Chevron in August 2010 filed a petition in the court seeking to see if the lawsuit could be dismissed. Their base was that the footage allegated in certain parts fraud on some parts of the plaintiffs. Because of this, plaintiffs in September of 2010 the assessment submitted that the costs would be around 90 and 130 million because of the damages for the claim, at this same month the new judge made the decision of concluding the phase of introducing evidence in the lawsuit. Then in February 14 of 2011, the Ecuadorian judge issued a ruling against the lawsuit of Chevron, the court order Chevron to pay the amount of 8.6 billion just for the damages and the clean up cost, but if Chevron did not give a public apology for the situation, the amount would raise to 18 billion. Chevron did not care at all they said that the ruling was completely illegitimate so they file an appeal to the case. In January 3rd of 2012, three judges from the Provincial Court of Justice in Sucumbíos upheld the February 2011 ruling that was against Chevron, then on January 20 of 2012 Chevron went to the Ecuadorian National Court of Justice to appeal the decision made in the Sucumbíos Court. Then in March of 2012 Chevron asked the Provincial Court of Justice to stop the forcing of them giving 18 billion to the Ecuadorian government this was the fourth time they were asking. In March 28 of 2012, the court in charge of Chevron did not have the order from the international arbitration tribunal, whose was asking the Ecuadorian Government to suspend the litigation, so the plaintiffs would be blocked and they could not enforce the judgment. The Ecuadorian plaintiffs were desperate to enforce the judgment, so they filed a lawsuit in Canada in May of 2012 and then one in Brazil that was June of 2012, the target was the was Chevron assets in Canada and Brazil. Unfortanely for Chevron in August 6 of 2012 the court determined that they had to pay 19 billion first initiated in the judgment to the Ecuadorian Government. In October 22 of 2012 order the plaintiffs to take 200 million of Chevron assets that they had in the country (Ecuador), this was an effort to collect the judgment against the company. Then in November 12 of 2013 a year later, the Supreme Court elevated the ruling determinate in August of 2012 against Chevron/Texaco for all the environmental damages and the sickness of the people living around the areas they polluted, but the damages were cut at half so Chevron/Texaco only had to pay 9.51 millions of dollars. Texaco/Chevron is a great example of the injustices committed to the Indians Native Tribes, they have destroyed completely their homes and our environment, yes it is also our environment because it is still our country and we have to fight for it, many human rights have been violated and no one has done anything to defend them, it doesn’t matter if we sue Texaco/Chevron here in Ecuador, United States, Canada, Brazil or even in the international court of the Hague, it still hasn’t been a result in favor to us, the most important and valuable thing that we have shown is that we care for our country, our environment and most important for all of our people, they could be harmless people yes thats true, but we are no fools. This case that the Ecuadorian Government opened against Texaco initially and then Chevron hasn’t been solved yet because oil companies have always the greatest and most expensive attorneys that work in the important firms that judges and courts are afraid of, they know perfectly how to win a case with dirty tricks and how to extend a case or lawsuit the biggest possible, this case will probably last much many years as we have seen it through all the explanation, but someday this malicious oil companies that have polluted our environment, destroyed Indian Native Tribes communities and violated their human rights would have to pay us the money we deserve, they will never get us back the way our beautiful forest, the culture that the Indian Native Tribes or all the atrocities they have suffered unfair because the oil was beneath their houses and feet, but the money would be useful to try to compensate to all of these things.

We have seen until now how oil companies have abused and violated the human rights of Native Indian Tribes with their unsafe exploit of oil, we have seen that the government has defended in some way the Indians because they really are just behind the money as always. But now we are going to see something worse than oil companies that are already abusive and malicious, we are going to see how the government itself wants to exploit Indian Native Tribes areas, destroy their homes, to violated their own citizens human rights, and how become the same enemy they have fought with because of the oil exploit,

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