2003 | Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch

All: 2003

Religious Leaders Blast Oil Cleanup in Ecuador

Contra Costa Times | Pleasant Hill - Three community leaders have returned from a visit to Ecuador, and Wednesday night they showed pictures from their trip of oil-slicked rivers and sludge-filled pits.ChevronTexaco paid $40 million to clean up the spilled and dumped waste it left behind when it pulled out of the Amazon in 1992, but the pe

Seeking Balance: Growth vs. Culture in Amazon

New York Times | Pumpuentsa, Ecuador — As international energy companies move into the Amazon basin to tap some of the last untouched oil and natural gas reserves, more and more natives are fighting to keep them out. Oil workers and contractors have been kidnapped, company officials say. Equipment has been vandalized.

An Announcement by the Kichwa People of Sarayacu

Puyo, Ecuador - The Kichwa People of Sarayacu, in fulfillment of its historic declaration that it will defend its ancestral territories and its absolute opposition to petroleum related exploitation on its lands, is now informing all authorities (whether they be at the local, provincial, national or international levels) as we

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BOLETIN INFORMATIVO - Resguardo Indígena Unido U’wa, Cubará (Boyacá)

ECOPETROL en el año 1.985 inicia actividades petroleras en territorio ancestral U’wa con el proyecto de explotación en Caño Limón (Arauca), la construcción del oleoducto Caño Limón Coveñas, y la construcción de la Estación de bombeo en territorio de la comunidad indígena de Tamarana”Sutota” en el corr

The Hunt for Black Gold Leaves a Stain in Ecuador; As ChevronTexaco Faces a Major Lawsuit, Evidence Portrays a Company and a Nation that for Years Showed Little Concern for the Environment

Los Angeles Times | Lago Agrio, EcuadorWhen Texaco contractors showed up at Monica Torres' wood shack in the jungle, they said they had come to clean up the mess the company had left behind.A pool of black oil sludge sat like a tar pit in her backyard, dumped by the company years earlier while drilling nearby.

Controversial Oil Projects in the Amazon Spark Shareholder Resolution for Houston-based Burlington Resources Inc. Investors Call on Oil Company to Adopt Policy on Indigenous Peoples Amazon Indigenous Peoples Reaffirm Opposition to Burlington’s Plans t

Resolution Text at End.Boston - Today Boston Common Asset Management filed a shareholder resolution with Houston-based Burlington Resources Inc. calling on the company to adopt a policy on indigenous peoples. Boston Common filed the resolution on behalf of its client, the Brethren Benefit Trust, Inc.

Victory for Peru’s Nahua People as Oil Development is Removed from their Territories

The Nahua, an indigenous people in initial contact with the outside world, have learnt that plans for oil exploration in their territories adjacent to the controversial Camisea Gas Project in Peru’s remote southeastern Amazon, have been abandoned in the face of strong local and international condemnation.

Damage Estimate in Ecuador Lawsuit Mounts to $6 Billion

Los Angeles Times | A new study says the environmental cost of Texaco's oil drilling is higher than thought.Bogota, Colombia — Lawyers for about 30,000 Ecuadoreans suing ChevronTexaco Corp.

Scientist Recommends Petroecuador Face Pollution Trial

Associated Press | Lago Agrio, Ecuador - A Spanish scientist working with plaintiffs in a lawsuit accusing Texaco of polluting part of Ecuador's Amazon jungle said Wednesday that the company's former partner – state-owned Petroecuador – should also face trial.

Testimony Ends in Oil Giant's Ecuador Trial

Sacramento Bee | Lago Agrio, Ecuador - Testimony in the oil pollution trial of ChevronTexaco came to a close Wednesday with a spectacular pre-dawn lightning storm capping three days of sometimes explosive evidence.The final stretch of this weeklong trial included testimony from a former minister of Ecuador's Ministry of Mines and Energ

Oil Major Forced to Answer Amazon Charge of Damaging the Environment

Financial Times | On the fourth floor of a rundown building in a small town in Ecuador, a courtroom has been freshly painted and newly furnished.The decision being taken in this nondescript building will have far-reaching repercussions for the oil industry and developing nations where oil companies have long operated.It is Judge

Ex-Energy Minister Says Texaco Knew it was Polluting Amazon

San Francisco Chronicle | Texaco knew it was damaging the environment when it launched operations in the Amazon jungle three decades ago, a former energy minister testified Monday in a civil trial against California-based ChevronTexaco. Retired army Gen.

The Week of Truth for ChevronTexaco. Testimonies Continue, Remediation Costs are Presented and the Plaintiffs Mobilize. Bianca Jagger, international human rights leader, returns to Ecuador to show her support for the people affected by ChevronTexaco

The Week of Truth for ChevronTexaco begins today in the Superior Court of Lago Agrio.The lawyers for the plaintiffs suing ChevronTexaco will be available three times a day to inform the press of what will be presented each day and what occurred throughout the day; at 8am at the Grand Hotel of Lago, at noon in front of

Texaco Goes on Trial in Ecuador Pollution Case

The New York Times | Lago Agrio, Ecuador - When René Arévalo draws water from his well, it is brown and gummy, requiring him to run it through a makeshift filtering system outside his wood-plank home in the jungle outside this town.Like thousands of other people here, he suspects the water was fouled by the waste an American oil company

Sucesion Presidencial y Asamblea Nacional Constituyente

A LA OPINION PUBLICA NACIONALLa Organizacion Indigena Chiquitana (OICH), preocupada por la crisis nacional que vive el pais y conocedores de la conducta del gobierno con los sectores y mas excluidos y marginados de nuestro pais, como somos los indigenas, campesinos, mineros y obreros, asi tambien ante la

Corruption has bled democracy

(espanol sigue ingles)By Jorge Cortés F. CEADES BOLIVIA ceadescz@entelnet.boIn May of the 2003 in the Seoul 11th International Anticorruption Conference (IACC) we denounced the serious problems of corruption that characterize the Bolivian government and the disastrous consequences this had for B

Bianca Jagger Promotes Lawsuit Against ChevronTexaco in Ecuador

By Associated Press | Quito, Ecuador - Celebrity activist Bianca Jagger criticized U.S. oil company ChevronTexaco, which is being sued by a group of poor Ecuadoreans who say the company's past drilling damaged their rainforest homeland.The plaintiffs, represented by U.S.

El “Juicio Ambiental del Siglo” Enfrenta a 50.000 Habitantes del Oriente Contra ChevronTexaco… Bianca Jagger Visita la Selva Amazónica del Ecuador en la Víspera del Histórico Juicio Multimillonario El caso de los habitantes del Oriente contra C

Nueva York, NY (Estados Unidos) y Lago Agrio, Ecuador - La líder de los derechos humanos internacionales Bianca Jagger llegará al Ecuador esta semana para dar inicio a una histórica recorrida por la selva amazónica apenas dos semanas antes del comienzo del juicio sin precedentes a celebrarse en Lago Agrio, donde los habi