Several days ago we asked you to take urgent action to tell the government of Ecuador to hold Chevron accountable for its deliberate Amazon pollution, before a legal deadline. Great news: it did! Ecuador rejected and formally appealed an award made in Chevron’s favor by an investor panel – infamous for elevating corporate interests over the rights of local communities – operating under the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Amazon Watch supporters sent over 20,000 emails within a matter of hours in solidarity with affected communities and Ecuadorian civil society. They told Ecuador’s president, attorney general, and ambassador to the U.S. to defend the rights of the Ecuadorian people and reject Chevron’s efforts to escape justice.
The messages were heard loud and clear, and Ecuador will continue to appeal the “decision” that would have made the taxpayers of Ecuador pay the bill to clean up the 16 billion gallons of toxic oil waste in the Amazon that Chevron already admitted to deliberately dumping there from 1964-1992 while operating as Texaco.
These investor panels, part of the Investor-State Dispute Settlement system, or ISDS, are known for elevating corporate interests over human rights. The arbiters in the Chevron-Ecuador case repeatedly ignored damning evidence that not only affirmed Chevron’s guilt for the original contamination but exposed the company’s fraud, when it tried to escape paying the judgment by bribing a witness in U.S. federal court and falsifying evidence.
Transcripts from the tribunal reveal that Alberto Guerra, a disgraced ex-judge who became the linchpin of Chevron’s RICO suit against Ecuadorians and their legal team as a means to avoid paying the 2011 $9.5 billion Ecuadorian judgment, admitted, “Yes sir, I lied there… I wasn’t being truthful,” when asked about his accusation that the plaintiffs’ legal team offered him a $300,000 bribe to rule in their favor.
The transcripts also discuss forensic evidence which disproves Guerra’s prior claim that the plaintiffs ghostwrote the final judgment against Chevron. He admitted as much on the witness stand, testifying that he knowingly introduced false and misleading evidence at the RICO trial and that the company offered him more money if he could produce evidence or copies of a ‘ghostwritten’ draft judgment. He could not. “We were unable to find the main document,” Guerra recalled Chevron saying, “Had we been able to find it, we would have been able to offer you a larger amount. Something like that, we have $18,000 for you.”
This award by the investor panel cannot be honored by the government of Ecuador. In addition to being based on Chevron’s exposed fraud, it violates the rights of the people affected, ignores decisions made by Ecuador’s highest courts, and is actually unconstitutional. Yet, Ecuador will remain under pressure from Chevron and international pro-corporate interests to buckle and accept this award. That is why international solidarity actions are crucial.
The movement for justice in Ecuador and accountability for Chevron is a critical one for the very idea of corporate accountability. Ecuadorians have endured decades of toxic contamination, legal bullying, and rights violations, and the global community must continue to support their epic battle for justice – one which truly affects us all.
