Ecuadorian Activists To Receive Goldman Prize - Chevron Spokesman Calls Them "Con Men" - MSNBC

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"Will you join us?" Uh, not now . . .

SAN FRANCISCO - Chevron Corp. is sharpening its attacks against two opponents in a 15-year legal battle over whether the oil company should foot a multibillion-dollar bill to clean up a toxic stew in the Amazon rainforests. The San Ramon-based company intensified its criticism Monday while two Ecuadoreans, Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza, were in San Francisco to pick up the Goldman Prize, a prestigious honor and $150,000 award given to individuals for their environmental achievements.

Fajardo and Yanza won the award for spearheading a class-action lawsuit alleging that a company acquired by Chevron poisoned a 1,700-square-mile expanse of the Ecuadorean jungle — an area the size of Rhode Island. The complaint, which dates back to 1993, alleges hundreds of jungle villagers are still dying from cancer and other serious health problems caused by the 18.5 billion gallons of oily wastewater that was improperly left behind.

Chevron has steadfastly denied any responsibility for the mess and instead has blamed the Ecuadorean government, which held the majority stake in a joint oil venture that operated from 1964 through 1992. But a court-appointed expert in the lawsuit's Ecuadorean trial dealt Chevron a setback earlier this month by submitting a report recommending the company be required to pay up to $16 billion in damages. Chevron ridiculed those findings as a farce. It could still be another year before a judge rules in a trial that began in 2003.

The attention that Fajardo and Yanza are getting from the Goldman Prize prodded Chevron to counter with its own public relations assault. "We feel these guys are nothing but con men," Chevron spokesman Don Campbell said. To punctuate its point, Chevron intends to run a full-page ad deriding Fajardo and Yanza in Tuesday's San Francisco Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in northern California.

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http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24126664/