Ecuador Congressman Presses Criminal Investigation of Chevron for Fraud in Environmental Clean-up, A

[Judi Lynn]

Source: PR Newswire

Ecuador Congressman Presses Criminal Investigation of Chevron for Fraud in Environmental Clean-up, Amazon Coalition Says
Posted : Wed, 19 Sep 2007 14:02:53 GMT

QUITO, Ecuador, Sept. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- A leading congressman in Ecuador this week asked the country's national prosecutor to re-open a criminal investigation of Chevron for committing fraud in a botched remediation of a large oil-related disaster in the Amazon rainforest, according to the Amazon Defense Coalition, a group of communities and indigenous groups in Ecuador that is pressing a multi-billion dollar legal case against the company.

The letter furthers increases Chevron's corporate governance problems in the oil-rich South American country, where a predecessor company (Texaco) was the exclusive operator of an oil consortium from 1964 to 1990. During this period, Texaco dumped more than 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into a 1,700 sq. mile are of the rainforest, purportedly to save $1 per barrel.

Chevron is currently a defendant in a class action lawsuit over the contamination, where plaintiffs estimate damages could top $10 billion. Four indigenous groups who have lived for centuries where Chevron operated claim their cultures have been decimated and that they are on the verge of extinction.
(snip)

The letter follows a recent request by Ecuador's Attorney General to the U.S. Department of Justice seeking a criminal probe of Chevron based on evidence found in the environmental trial that shows hundreds of toxic waste pits were never remediated, despite Chevron's representations to the government that they were. Ricardo Reis Veiga, a top Chevron lawyer in Latin America, has been dubbed the "architect of fraud" by spokespersons for the affected communities for his role in certifying the allegedly fraudulent clean-up.


Read more: http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/news_press_release,181260.shtml

[Peace Patriot]

1. Kudos and laurel wreaths to this Ecuadoran congressman! What courage!

You've got to cry some tears, though, over Ecuador's Attorney General petitioning George Bush's DoJ to investigate Chevron. Don't they know that Bush IS Chevron? Well, I'm sure they do.

But it just makes you...terribly sad. Four indigenous groups on the verge of extinction, dying from Chevron's muck, and the prospects for accountability by our government are non-existent, and, in fact, these Ecuadorans are putting their lives in danger from Bushite goon squads to even ask.

[goforit]

2. This is so true. After reading the 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman", it is

incredible how these corporations bulldoze themselves in third world countries
with no questions asked, reaking havoc and making sure these countries continue
their third world status being forever indebt to these thugs.

I hope Chevron/Texaco gets screwed to the wall!!!!

And I hope Paraguay is watching this, with Bush coming in after his presidency or when ever
he commits another mihop.

[Peace Patriot]

3. Paraguay is likely going to elect Fernando Lugo (the "bishop of the poor") as

president this year; he's way ahead in the polls--a very good man and advocate for the poor, much akin to Chavez in Venezuela, Morales in Bolivia, Correa in Ecuador, Kirchner in Argentina, and Vasquez in Uruguay, and other new left leaders in South America. So Paraguay may not be such a "happy hunting ground" for Bush and Cartel. Things are going very much against them in South America. They may have to buy land in Poland!

Where are they not pariahs? There really is not a country on earth where ordinary people wouldn't hate them, and hardly a government that would want to be associated with them openly. Even the president of Colombia--recipient of billions of (our tax) dollars from Bush--has felt obliged to distance himself from Bushite plots against other South American leaders and countries, and is now friends with Hugo Chavez, who is going to help him stop the Colombian civil war. And on Bush's kneecapping tour of Latin American countries this last spring, he was the one who got kneecapped. Even the rightwing president of Mexico, Felipe Calderon, felt compelled to lecture Bush, in public, on the sovereignty of Latin American countries, and mentioned Venezuela as an example!

What do these Latin American leaders know that we don't know? I think you can guess--something so offensive that even the few remaining rightwing leaders had to distance themselves from it. I think it was a specific assassination and coup plot against Chavez and Venezuela, set for the day after the Venezuelan presidential election in Dec '06. It got exposed--by some courageous prosecutors, judges and whistleblowers in Colombia, and any colluders had to run for cover. Chavez's opponent publicly disavowed it. The plot was to turn on a false poll, saying Chavez didn't win--he won by 63% of the vote in highly monitored elections--to be followed by "riots" and a rightwing military coup. And guess who paid for the poll? USAID/NED!

I think the days of easy U.S.-instigated fascist coups in Latin America are OVER. And the Bushites in particular are overwhelmingly despised, everywhere.