Chevron-Texaco vs Amazon Rain Forest

LAGO AGRIO, Ecuador - After sixteen years of litigation, the lawsuit against Chevron Corp. is being celebrated among human rights activists and environmentalist. The dignity of native populations around the world is being recognized in a Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples adopted by the United Nations.

American oilmen were at the top of the power structure when Texaco began drilling in Ecuador's Amazon rain forest in the early 1990's. Ecuador was then run by a military dictatorship.

In 2006, attorneys for Chevron, which inherited the case in a merger with Texaco, arrived in court in Lago Agrio escorted by uniformed army soldiers. Plaintiff's attorneys were unaccompanied.

When Rafael Correa was elected in 2006, a U.S. educated economist who speaks French, English and Quechua, called the devastation of the Amazon a "crime against humanity" and supported the plaintiffs in the case against Chevron.

Under Correa's administration, many positive changes are being made. Ecuador has a greater respect for indigenous cultures and has given Mother Earth legal standing. Voters approved a new constitution that grants nature the right to "exist, persist, maintain and regenerate its vital cycles, structure, functions and its processes in evolution."

Around 30,000 inhabiants of the Amazon, which amounts to five indigenous tribes and 80 communities, allege that Chevron-Texaco polluted their land, their only source of water, resulting in chronic and fatal illnesses.

Chevron has launched a huge public relations campaign, saying it is pitted against a socialist government and not the locals. Chevron-Texaco has tried to limit its public talks about the trial, while plaintiffs insist on discussing the personal suffering of its inhabitants.

The jungle resents what many residents say was Chevron-Texaco's arrogance, a sense of imperialist exploitation. It was the work of a corporation rather than of a government.

The Indians still living in the rain forest talk about the how the American oilmen, with their abundance of money and contempt for local culture over took their land. From the houses, towns and tribes, it all comes down to the same thing. The arrogant oilmen mocked, shamed, and took more than just their lands.

A Secoya woman said, "Before Texaco came, the women did not have children who were half-white. But what could they do? The women were given no choice."

The Chevron-Texaco pilots would bring in their helicopters, and carry off Indian women for the fun of it, fly boys and men off deep into the jungle and strand them miles away from home without food or water, the tribal elders recalled.

Many of the women were raped and had miscarriages. Chevron spokesman Kent Robertson told the Times, "This notion that accusations can be made without any sort of substance behind them is extremely worrisome." Chevron wants to know where are the witnesses and evidence?

No matter how the case is resolved, no amount of money will restore the rain forest, and the foundation of an ancient culture has vanished.

Living in the village of San Pablo, the Secoya Indians remember the day the river ran black. They tell of oil rushing down the waters, engulfing everything in its path. Soon to come were dead fish, floating above the surface.

Instead of fish, now the Indians eat potatoes, rice and canned sardines bought at stores away from their villages. The devastation, more so than the toxicity reports, animates the long standing lawsuit nearing its conclusion.

The plaintiffs promise they will never give up. When the verdict is issued in Lago Agrio, a round of appeals and other legal procedures will take place where Chevron has assets. The Amazon and its people will remain unhealed, while Chevron has assured investors it will never pay.