Advocates Press On In Chevron’s Ecuador Contamination Case

Cofan indigenous women stand near a pool of oil in
Ecuador’s Amazonian region. (AP/Dolores Ochoa)

20/05/2014 - www.mintpressnews.com

With Chevron Corp. recently having won a major victory in its marathon legal battle over environmental pollution claims in Ecuador, advocates for indigenous Amazonian farmers are trying to refocus attention on evidence showing the extent of Chevron’s alleged toxic contamination of the rain forest.

U.S. District Judge Lewis A. Kaplan gave the company its victory in March by ruling that attorney Stephen Donziger and his legal team representing Ecuadorians engaged in a conspiracy and criminal conduct to force Chevron to settle the pollution case.

Even if Chevron was responsible for pollution in Ecuador’s Amazonian region, Donziger and his clients “were not entitled to corrupt the process to achieve their goal,” Kaplan said in barring Donziger and his associates from seeking to enforce in the United States a $19 billion judgment — later reduced to $9.5 billion — that was awarded against Chevron in February 2011 by an Ecuadorian court.

Shortly before the court announced the judgment, Chevron had sued Donziger and several environmental groups for civil racketeering and fraud, among other claims... See More