The oil giant Chevron has been fined over $17 billion in a long-running case over environmental contamination in Ecuador. Amazonian residents have sued Chevron for dumping billions of gallons of toxic oil waste into Ecuador’s rain forest since the ’70s. On Monday, an Ecuadorian judge ordered Chevron to pay an $8.6 billion fine and an equal amount in punitive damages. It’s the second-largest total assessment for environmental damages, behind the $20 billion compensation fund for BP’s Gulf Coast oil spill. Under the ruling, the punitive damages would be waived if Chevron issues a public apology within 15 days.
Chevron has vowed to appeal, but it’s also suggested it won’t pay up under any circumstances, calling the ruling, quote, “illegitimate and unenforceable.” The plaintiffs, meanwhile, say they plan to appeal, as well, because the damages are too low. On Monday, a spokesperson for the plaintiffs, Luis Lanza, reacted to the verdict.
The ruling comes over 17 years after the case was first filed in a New York court. Chevron successfully fought to have it moved to Ecuador in 2003. In 2008, reports emerged that Chevron had lobbied the Bush administration to remove special trade preferences for Ecuador to pressure the Ecuadorian government to block the case. Chevron has also filed counter-suits against the plaintiffs, their attorneys and the Ecuadorian government in U.S. courts and at The Hague.
Andrew Miller talking:
Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron, over the course of two-and-a-half decades, it planned, created, implemented a system which systematically polluted in the Ecuadorian Amazon. It left hundreds of toxic waste pits. It dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste. And really, the whole time that this trial has been going on over the course of 18 years, the communities continue to live with that legacy, and they continue to suffer the impacts, the health impacts, the cultural impacts, the environmental impacts of that destruction.
And so, this is an important day for the communities. It’s just one step; it’s not a victory. But it is very crucial for them. It’s also an important day for the broader struggle for corporate accountability around the world, for broader struggles for environmental justice and human rights.
Chevron fought for years, actually, to have the jurisdiction moved from the United States to Ecuador. And they claimed that they could get a fair trial there, they claimed that they could get a transparent trial, and they essentially agreed to accept whatever the decision was. So they fought for years to do that.
the evidence that was used by the judge, is actually Chevron’s own evidence. The thousands of soil samples were carried out by the court, were carried out by experts that had been brought on by the plaintiffs, and also were carried out by scientists and experts that were brought on by Chevron. So, the evidence in this judgment is actually Chevron’s own evidence. So it’s their evidence. It’s in the venue that they fought for for a long time. And, you know, I essentially think that Chevron doesn’t want this to happen in any jurisdiction, whether it’s the United States or Ecuador or anywhere around the world. Effectively, they believe that they’re above the law. And, the Ecuadorian communities that have been affected by their operations are saying otherwise.
This is the first time indigenous people have sued a multinational corporation in the country where the crime was committed and won.
Andrew Miller, Washington, D.C.-based Advocacy Coordinator for Amazon Watch.
– from democracynow.org