(Los Angeles, CA) – A key hearing will be held in the Ninth Circuit Court on Wednesday, March 3, in the landmark environmental and public health case brought by the indigenous Peruvian Achuar community and the U.S.-based NGO Amazon Watch against oil giant Occidental Petroleum (OXY). The hearing will likely determine whether OXY will have to defend its 30 year-old legacy of massive pollution in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon just miles from its world headquarters in Los Angeles, or whether the case will move to Peru. If the case is moved to South America, it could mean years of protracted litigation, similar to Chevron’s $27 billion dollar albatross in Ecuador.
WHAT: Hearing in 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Maynas Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum Corp. concerning dismissal on forum non conveniens against Occidental Petroleum for environmental and public health harms
WHEN: 9:30 a.m. PST, Wednesday March 3, 2010
WHERE: Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, 125 South Grand Avenue, Pasadena, CA
WHO: Gerardo Maynas, Plaintiff, Achuar leader, President of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO); Lily la Torre, Peruvian indigenous rights lawyer, Achuar legal advisor; Atossa Soltani, Founder and Executive Director, Amazon Watch (plaintiff); Marco Simons, Co-Counsel and Legal Director of EarthRights International (arguing the appeal before the 9th Circuit)
Background
In the early 1970s, OXY began oil exploration and production in what is known as Block 1AB, home to the indigenous Achuar people, in the Corrientes River Basin in the northeastern Peruvian Amazon. Plaintiffs allege that OXY knowingly engaged in destructive practices which severely contaminated unique and sensitive ecosystems and caused profound impacts upon the rights and health of the communities living there.
The suit alleges that OXY contaminated the rivers and the lands of the Achuar, causing death, widespread poisoning, destruction of their traditional way of life, and property damage; OXY deliberately ignored industry standards and employed out-of-date practices in its operations, resulting in severe cadmium and lead poisoning among indigenous communities. In addition to alleging that OXY illegally dumped toxic wastewater, the Achuar place the blame on OXY for generating acid rain with gas flares, failing to warn the community of health dangers, and improperly storing chemical waste in unlined pits.
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that works Amazon Watch works to protect the rainforest and advance the rights of indigenous peoples in the Amazon Basin. We partner with indigenous and environmental organizations in campaigns for human rights, corporate accountability and the preservation of the Amazon’s ecological systems.
EarthRights International (ERI) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization that combines the power of law and the power of people in defense of human rights and the environment. Focusing on earth rights, ERI works at the intersection of human rights and the environment. ERI specializes in fact-finding, legal actions against perpetrators of earth rights abuses, training for grassroots and community leaders, and advocacy campaigns that seek to end earth rights abuses and promote and protect earth rights. ERI has offices in Washington, D.C. and Thailand.
Gerardo Maynas is an Indigenous Achuar elder and a plaintiff in the case against Occidental Petroleum. He is from the Corrientes River Basin in the Peruvian Amazon and has suffered harms as a direct result of OXY’s activities and his daughter suffers lead poisoning also as a result of OXY’s oil pollution in and around his community. Mr. Maynas is the President of the Federation of Native Communities of the Corrientes River (FECONACO).
