Quito, Ecuador – The international arbitration panel in the case of Chevron v. the State of Ecuador determined on November 17, 2025 that Ecuador should pay the company $220 million. The Office of the Attorney General of Ecuador (PGE) made this information public 21 days later.
It is difficult to understand why the Ecuadorian government, or rather the current administration, is celebrating this defeat. According to the PGE, Ecuador “saved” $3.13 billion because Chevron had originally demanded $3.35 billion, and will now “only” receive $220 million.
Beyond these implausible figures, this case again demonstrates how international arbitration systems have become tools used to dismantle human rights protections. Ten years ago, Ecuador already paid Chevron $112 million for an alleged “denial of justice” related to commercial claims brought by the company, then operating as Texaco. Now the country must pay an additional $220 million for the same alleged violation, not including more than $50 million already spent on “technical defense.” In total, Ecuador has been ordered to pay nearly $400 million to Chevron.
The 2018 arbitral award and its recently disclosed monetary calculation do not affect the validity or enforceability of the judgment in Aguinda v. Chevron. Ecuador’s Constitutional Court issued a final ruling in favor of the Indigenous and campesino communities represented by UDAPT. This judgment is fully enforceable, and no arbitration panel can overturn it. UDAPT will continue to fight without hesitation until justice and full reparation for the Amazon, the land, and its peoples are achieved.
The environmental and economic harms suffered by Indigenous and campesino communities due to Chevron’s toxic waste in the Northern Ecuadorian Amazon continue to take lives. Every year, at least 200 new cancer cases are reported, many linked to toxins Chevron discharged into rivers and forests. These impacts will continue until the contamination is fully cleaned up. Chevron is the perpetrator, not the victim.
Together with the plaintiffs, UDAPT has filed a petition before the competent judge in Sucumbíos requesting the immediate seizure of the $220,806,942 award. We expect the court to act promptly and order the seizure.
It is neither appropriate nor just that Chevron, which extracted more than $30 billion worth of oil from Ecuador, polluted the Amazon, contributed to the disappearance of Indigenous peoples, and caused the deaths of hundreds of people from cancer, should now receive more than $220 million from the Ecuadorian public. Communities won their lawsuit, yet the country is being forced to pay the company responsible for one of the worst environmental crimes in the Amazon.
UDAPT rejects such injustices. We therefore call on the judge to immediately order the seizure of this award.
We also remind the public that three years ago the plaintiffs submitted a petition to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) requesting that this case be admitted and that it be clearly established that human rights must prevail over corporate interests.
From afar, Chevron celebrates this ruling, the award amount, the complacency of Ecuadorian authorities, and the investment treaty protections that allow it to profit enormously after having invested so little and avoided billions in costs by dumping toxic formation waters into rivers and forests instead of reinjecting them safely. They live far away, and the contamination will never reach them.
The greatest tribute to those who began this struggle and died without seeing justice is to resist until their dreams are realized.
Chevron Never Again
