The people of the
Amazonian region of Ecuador could not have wished for a better
Valentine Day’s gift as a court there slammed an $8 billion fine on
Chevron for heavily polluting the area through serial oil spills.
Texaco spewed the
spills into the fragile ecosystem between 1964 and 1990. You may be
wondering why Chevron should be caught in the mess left behind by
Texaco. Chevron bought over Texaco in 2001, although if you should
trace their pedigree, you would find that they were close relatives.
The case against
Chevron was first fought in a New York court, but they succeeded in
getting the court to agree that the legitimate place to try the case
was Ecuador. And so to Ecuador the case went. Perhaps, the oil mogul
banked on wearing the plaintiffs out or it may have considered that
they could run over the Ecuadorian legal system and come out unscathed,
with clean oily hands.
Well, the
plaintiffs were tenacious and the lawyers pressed on with the case. In
a statement issued soon after the judgement was delivered, Chevron
declared that, “The Ecuadorian court’s judgment is illegitimate and
unenforceable,” and that it was “the product of fraud and is contrary
to the legitimate scientific evidence.” And, of course, Chevron plans
to appeal.
Interesting.
Corporations such as Chevron are always keen to avoid liability even
when caught in the act with a smoking gun still in its hands. The oil
spills they left behind in Ecuador are as evident today as they were
decades ago.
Indeed, anyone who
makes a pollution tour of the Sucumbios, the region where these
environmental disasters are easily visible, will not have to search
before seeing the pools of crude Chevron left behind. There are cases
of polluted streams, forests, and farmlands. It is like another Niger
Delta across the ocean.
The people of the
region suffer the impacts of the pollution on their health through
diverse cancers, blood disorders, and other such diseases. The
corporation also left behind pipelines that often run above the ground
and at places people have to stoop beneath them to get into their
homes.
One of the more
atrocious acts of corporate “responsibility” was the alleged practice
of using toxic drilling muds to make building blocks for schools in the
area. Reports also abound of toxic wastes from oil activities being
spread on community roads as a social service. Sad thing is that after
the operations were taken over by the national oil company, Petro
Ecuador, there does not appear to be significant respect for the
environment or the people in the region.
Meanwhile, Chevron
is kicking and screaming against the judgment. It argues that they have
earlier rulings by US and international courts that they can depend on
to make the enforcement of Monday’s ruling impossible. Their statement
is laced with open threats: “Chevron does not believe that today’s
judgment is enforceable in any court that observes the rule of
law…Chevron intends to see that the perpetrators of this fraud are
held accountable for their misconduct.”
The company has
loads of money and plenty of time. The poor indigenous people and the
campesinos in the Amazon forest have neither of those. To the poor
people, it is a fight for survival. For the oil mogul, it is a struggle
to avoid responsibility.
When they bought
over Texaco, it should have been obvious that they purchased both the
assets and the liabilities. And when a case is about environmental
pollution, pray how do you hide the evidence of several barrels of
crude oil in the open environment? It would take particular credulous
judges to avoid the physical evidence that cry for justice even before
the peoples speak.
The Ecuadoran
Amazon communities initially filed a suit in New York City against
Chevron in 1993 for polluting their water and soil and sought a
settlement in the sum of 27 billion US dollars. After years of struggle
and prevarications, the gavel has come down on the table, and Chevron
is screaming blue murder.
The company was
even reported to have filed complaints against the plaintiffs’ lawyers
in the USA before the judgment was delivered. Why are these powerful
transnational corporations unable to accept guilt and show some respect
for local peoples who suffer the impacts of their massive footprints?
The Ecuadorian
situation should be a lesson to those who are plucking up Shell’s oil
fields in the Niger Delta. Someone will pay, one day, somehow.
