ECUADOR: CHEVRON-TEXACO the judgment of the century, $ 19 fine
The lawyers of the 30 Indigenous and Peasants who make up the Texaco Victims' Assembly were quick to take steps to recover this sum. Not in Ecuador, where the American company withdrew its funds a while ago, but in Canada, Brazil, Colombia and Argentina.
It is in the latter country that the approaches gave their first results. On November 7, the Argentine justice system ordered the seizure of all of the company's funds. News that investors did not particularly appreciate: the ninth petroleum industry in the world started in December with strong falls on the stock market. The first step to repair one of the largest toxic spills in history is now taken.
The first barrel of oil
On June 27, 1972, the first barrel of oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon arrived in Quito, and was received with all the honors due to a Head of State. It was exposed on a cushion on top of a chariot and the procession advanced among the crowd until it represented the Temple of the Military College. At the edge of the streets, the people of Quito were jostling for a new "era of prosperity", according to the nasal voice of the national press.
Forty years later, the region where the oil that filled this barrel was extracted is the poorest in Ecuador. And it has the highest cancer rates in the country. Air smells of petrol, earth smells of petrol, water smells of petrol.
Hermenegildo Criollo told us about his first meeting with Texaco in a cafeteria in the center of Lago Agrio, the capital of this oil region. Criollo was born in the Cofán (Indigenous) community of Dureno and was old enough to remember: the rivers surrounding the hamlet provided plenty of water for drinking and fish; and the forests, animals for hunting and natural remedies.
They came by helicopter. "Everyone was scared, we had never seen anything like this flying in the air in our life, and we hid in the forest." It was in 1964. Texaco began construction of its first well, Lago Agrio I.. “While passing by we saw five hectares of forest cut. They called us to approach us. At the time, they didn't speak a word of Spanish, says Criollo. And even less English. They gave them three plates, something to eat, and four spoons. It was the only price they received in exchange for hundreds of thousands of hectares.
In the days that followed, the Cofans noticed a change in the noise coming from the machines. The business was starting to dig. One morning, on the banks of the river and very close to the community, a large black spot appeared.
- What is that ? Where is that from ? Wondered the community. Neither the ancients nor the shamans had ever seen an oil spill.
"We didn't know it was oil," says Hermenegildo Criollo. Oil spills and toxic spills eventually flow to the river that the Cofans used to drink, bathe, water their crops, and where the animals drank. “We lived by the oil and took the water below. We didn't know it was contaminated, ”says Criollo.
"So the stomach aches started, the headaches. We bathed in the river and had our bodies covered with eruptions. These were diseases that we had never seen ”. Her first child died at 6 months of age due to growth problems. The second was born healthy, but things soon got worse. “When he was three, he could already swim and walk. I took him to the river one day. And the child, while bathing, took contaminated water. He started throwing up when he got home. He ended up vomiting blood. He died in less than 24 hours. Two children. So I said, "What can I do? How can we defend ourselves from diseases that come from everywhere? "
The case of the community of Dureno is not an isolated case. When Texaco left Ecuador in 1992, he forgot to take away 60 and a half million liters of oil spilled in the Amazon ecosystem and 68 million liters of toxic water that had been poured into rivers. Not to mention the millions of cubic meters of gas they burned in the open air. An environmental and social disaster that can only be compared to the greatest in history: Chernobyl, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, Bophal or Exxon Valdez. However, in this case, it is not an accident but a deliberate desire to save money - as stipulated in the judgment.
Indigenous and Settlers.
One of the main obstacles to face Texaco was the lack of confidence between the two groups mainly affected by the contamination: the Indigenous peoples and the Colonists, peoples of the Ecuadorian Sierra who had arrived in the region in search of employment. as Texaco gained ground on the Forest.
Humberto Piaguaje is part of the Secoya (Indigenous) people. There are barely 445 members of their thousand-year-old culture, caught up in general contagion and forced changes in their way of life. "It was a very difficult process of construction at the beginning", He remembers when Luis Yanza, one of the first settler leaders, started to call meetings: "People said, shit! How are we going to unite with the colonizers? They who also came to destroy our Forest ? "The banks of the river, from which they drew water and fish, were constantly polluted by oil. Diseases for which they had no cure decimated the population, bringing to the brink of extinction its customs, language, memory and beliefs.
“We felt very alone in the face of all this. But we said, 'No, because we have to fight beyond all that, we have to stand together by uniting all of us. Despite so many differences, those of not knowing the culture, of speaking other languages'. We have created the Defense Front of the Amazon, ”says Humberto Piaguaje.
Years later, in 2001, the organization grew with the creation of the Assembly of Victims of Texaco. Today, Piaguaje fulfills the functions of Deputy Coordinator of this organization which brings together 30 Indigenous and Colonists. The main purpose of the Assembly is to obtain justice through the courts and compensation for all environmental and social damage produced by Texaco during its 000 years of petroleum activity.
"The judgment of the century"
In 1993, a group of lawyers, Colonists and Indigenous people, had already filed a lawsuit against Texaco in New York. But the judgment had been systematically blocked by the millionaire team of lawyers for the company. The main argument of the oil company was that the trial should be held in Ecuador. "Texaco considered that the justice system here is very corrupt and that they could buy the judges with a few cents", explains Alejandra Almeida, of Ecological Action. In 2002 Texaco achieved its goal: the New York judgment was transferred to Ecuador.
But things did not go as the company hoped, says Almeida: "Texaco had not counted on the fact that the mobilization was going to be vigilant all the time and that is what put pressure on the judges so they can't sell themselves. With hundreds of Indigenous people at the door of the court, it couldn't happen for any judge to do anything atrocious. In Ecuador, trials are won on the street. That is what Texaco did not count on. ” The media started to talk about "Judgment of the Century".
On June 23, 2003, the trial against Chevon-Texaco began in Lago Agrio. As support for the lawyers who represented the 30 victims, there was a young man named Pablo Fajardo. He was born into a modest family of settlers. He was about to complete his law studies away.
“I was the assistant to two very well-known Quito lawyers. One lived in the United States, the other in Quito, but declared himself ill during the trial. And in 2005, I decided to assume the trial myself. I had been a lawyer for barely a year. In front of me were eight Chevron lawyers. Whoever had the smallest experience had one of 25 years, ”says Pablo Fajardo in his apartment in Lago Agrio. It would take more than two whole houses to consolidate all the material for the trial: 230 hours which included the testimony of victims, analyzes on the ground, and elements of 000 years of procedure.
The end of a “50 year war”
It is difficult to imagine a more unequal trial. From the start, Chevron has spent more than $ 000 on lawyers and expert opinions. “We had to search to the last penny to continue the fight. Not only is this difference considerable, but they have the means to manipulate information, to buy governments, to bribe journalists, they have enough money to run the whole world, ”said Fajardo.
These differences and his lack of experience as a lawyer do not seem to have been an obstacle against Chevron-Texaco's lawyers. It was based on evidence of contamination that the company itself did not feel embarrassed to deny at any time. She even tried to nuance its scope. Between 2003 and 2010, the trial progressed without good prospects for the multinational. His team of lawyers nonetheless tried several tactics.
First, she tried to refuse the trial on the pretext that the Assembly of Victims was a "criminal association" whose purpose was to pressurize the company. Then she tried to get the trial back to the United States because Ecuador did not meet the conditions for a fair trial.
It did not work. The outside pressure was constant. As well as the demonstrations in Quito, supported by environmental groups, the indigenous confederation of the Amazon and that of all of Ecuador. Also constant were the massive assemblies, the storming of the Justice of the Republic and the watch services, at all hours of the day, every day of the year, to prevent unwanted contacts between representatives of the business and judges.
A collective outcome
On February 14, 2011, the Ecuadorian justice system finally issued a judgment. And she repeated it in January 2012: Chevron-Texaco was guilty. The company had to pay $ 19 billion, the highest compensation in human history. But the victims did not think of becoming millionaires in the midst of contamination and misery. The 200 complainants decided that the money would not be distributed individually but collectively. Most of the compensation will be used to repair the environment. The rest will go to hospitals, schools, drinking water supply and other investments for the development of the region.
Now you have to touch the money, which is a sensitive issue since Chevron has no funds in Ecuador. "We must make Chevron lawful to pay for the crimes committed. We will go where Chevron has funds, ”said victims' lawyer Pablo Fajardo. The Argentine courts were the first to accept Ecuador's request. But it will be necessary to rely on more countries to perfect the repair. Canada, Brazil and Colombia are some of the countries where the struggle will continue to compensate for the damage caused by Texaco between 1964 and 1992.
Regardless of what happens regarding compensation, the judgment is already "historic" says Fajardo. For this lawyer, this judgment does not only concern Chevron, the plaintiffs, and the Amazon. "What is at stake is a whole system of companies which for decades has committed huge crimes with impunity in Latin America, Africa, Asia and all parts of the world," says -he.
Pablo Fajardo speaks of a “nearly 50 years war” in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The first 28 years were a "constant massacre" on the part of Texaco. 28 years in which they “bombarded the air, water, land and forest with toxic substances”. “The last 18 years we have gradually reacted and we have been able to face this real [or royal] power. Until recently, people in Ecuador and around the world believed that it was impossible for a group of Indigenous people, Peasants, Poor People, in a Third World country, to face such a business as powerful as Chevron. We are demonstrating that it is possible and that it can be done, that it is possible to go much further, that we can change things, that they are not untouchable, that they do not are not invincible ”.
Source: http://www.scoop.it/t/la-penurie-energe ... s-d-amende
Source in Spanish: http://www.diagonalperiodico.net/global ... sible.html
