CHEVRON Corporation and the South American indigenous peoples of Ecuador are in the final rounds of their fistfight, a fight that never should have taken place.
Why? Because an Ecuadoran court has already ruled against Chevron and in favor of the Ecuadoreans. The judgment was for $9.6 billion dollars. The court could have imposed $28 billion.
But when you're a big bullying oil corporation with multinational business contacts and loads of money for buying international justice, GUILTY verdicts are technicalities to be ridiculed, downplayed, ignored then finally twisted into a shyster's legal term: Shakedown.
Here's the skinny:
30,000 Ecuadoreans sued Chevron for extensive environmental damage caused by 20 years (1972-1992) of oil drilling operations, which have sickened thousands of Ecuadorians and polluted the Amazon rainforest. Since 1993, lawyers representing local residents have sought to force former well operator Texaco and its now parent company Chevron Corporation to clean the area known as the Lago Agrio oil field and to provide for the care of those allegedly affected.
Texaco claimed that in 1995 the Ecuadorean government, a oil drilling partner with a 25% interest in the partnership, released them from further liability after Texaco agreed to clean a number of waste pits in proportion to its interest in the partnership, at a cost of $40 million. Numerous sources show the remediation efforts to have been largely cosmetic.
We could say that this is just the unfortunate repercussion of a poor country getting in bed with a shysty Oil drilling business. The old biblical term "you reap what you sow" prophetically comes to mind.
The really scary part of it all is the P-O-W-E-R the oil companies have and their influence over international litigating parties. Any person, government or formed group such as a corporation should be made accountable for their actions in a court of law, or else what good is law other than to serve the powerful in oppression and control of the powerless.
Why? Because an Ecuadoran court has already ruled against Chevron and in favor of the Ecuadoreans. The judgment was for $9.6 billion dollars. The court could have imposed $28 billion.
But when you're a big bullying oil corporation with multinational business contacts and loads of money for buying international justice, GUILTY verdicts are technicalities to be ridiculed, downplayed, ignored then finally twisted into a shyster's legal term: Shakedown.
Here's the skinny:
30,000 Ecuadoreans sued Chevron for extensive environmental damage caused by 20 years (1972-1992) of oil drilling operations, which have sickened thousands of Ecuadorians and polluted the Amazon rainforest. Since 1993, lawyers representing local residents have sought to force former well operator Texaco and its now parent company Chevron Corporation to clean the area known as the Lago Agrio oil field and to provide for the care of those allegedly affected.
Texaco claimed that in 1995 the Ecuadorean government, a oil drilling partner with a 25% interest in the partnership, released them from further liability after Texaco agreed to clean a number of waste pits in proportion to its interest in the partnership, at a cost of $40 million. Numerous sources show the remediation efforts to have been largely cosmetic.
We could say that this is just the unfortunate repercussion of a poor country getting in bed with a shysty Oil drilling business. The old biblical term "you reap what you sow" prophetically comes to mind.
The really scary part of it all is the P-O-W-E-R the oil companies have and their influence over international litigating parties. Any person, government or formed group such as a corporation should be made accountable for their actions in a court of law, or else what good is law other than to serve the powerful in oppression and control of the powerless.
Is it possible the legal courts worldwide are on the take?
American U.S. District Judge Martin Feldman in New Orleans ordered federal regulators to act on seven drilling permit applications this past week, overturning a presidential moratorium on deepwater drilling after BP's oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. President Obama's administration has appealed Feldman's order and filed court documents paving the way for regulators to deny such applications.
From Judgepedia.org:
After the ruling by Feldman, his investments and stocks were analyzed, showing that in 2009 he held stocks of companies that would be affected by his ruling. Judge Feldman insists that he found out about these holdings on June 21, and contacted his broker to sell them on the morning of June 22. According to the Wall Street Journal, "Under federal law, federal judges are prohibited from deciding cases in which they have financial interests in the parties or the outcome of the case. They are also prohibited from deciding cases in which there is the appearance of a conflict." [6] Because of the questions surrounding the status of his financial holdings, environmental groups have asked that Feldman recuse himself from the case and suspend his ruling. [7]
Feldman announced that he will not recuse himself from the case, saying, "The motion for disqualification is without merit." [8]
In the infamous words of Malcolm X: "Chickens Coming Home To Roost"
Huffington Post: Ecuador Another Victory
