Written by: Ben Moody
In this article, I discuss the legal challenges for the Ecuadorian people of the Amazon through an inadequate court system which has attempted to alienate them from their rights and further corporate oil interests- and the attempts of an American lawyer to bring justice.
The History of TEXACO in Ecuador
TEXACO operated in Ecuador’s Amazon region from 1972 to 1992 during which they had a deal with the government where the profits were shared between the two. In total, 325 oil pits were constructed, largely in the Amazon region of Ecuador in the North-East of the country. Throughout the time that TEXACO was present in the country, the company was found to have; dumped at least 16 billion gallons of contaminated water into the rivers and ecosystem of the Ecuadorian rainforest, spilled 26,400 barrels of Crude Oil over that time period and disregarded the safe oil drilling practices which TEXACO helped to develop less than a decade prior in the form of the API safe drilling practices which they helped to develop in 1962.
Despite producing over 2 billion barrels of oil in Ecuador over a 20 year period, a class action lawsuit from the Ecuadorian Amazons alleged that TEXACO ‘never conducted a single environmental impact study or health evaluation in the decades it operated in the Amazon, even though thousands of people… relied on rivers and streams that the company used to discharge toxic waste.’[1] The conclusion of the original deal between Ecuador and TEXACO was followed by a deal under which TEXACO would pay $40 million to pay for the ecological damage sustained, in addition to allowing PETROECUADOR (the Ecuadorian state run oil company) to keep the machinery and some of the technical knowhow of the TEXACO company. This maintained profits for the Ecuadorian government, but left the Amazonian Ecuadorian people bereft of financial support, recognition of the damage or the healthcare which they would come to need as a result of TEXACO’s actions.
The Effects of TEXACO in Ecuador
The environmental damage this has done has had an untold impact on the indigenous people of the Ecuadorian Amazon. A 2002 study published in the Journal of Epidemiology by Hurtig and San Sebastián found that exposure to this contaminated water significantly increased the incidence of cancer overall, especially to older adults, and that it specifically increased the incidence of cancer for men in their: Larynx, Stomach, Skin (Melanoma) and Liver. For Women, the main risk incidence factors were cancer of the Cervix and the Lymph nodes. There was also in increase in the incidence of risk of cancer to children, principally Leukaemia[2].
To this day, there are hundreds of open oil pits in the Amazon region of Ecuador. This means that the harmful chemicals which have caused the increase in cancer are still doing so, as the pits are either open or have been inadequately closed.
The Legal case against TEXACO Chevron
A case against TEXACO (which had become subsumed under Chevron) was filed via class action in Ecuador by the Amazonian people of Ecuador. The case alleged that TEXACO had not practised safe drilling, or even produced the necessary safety reports to assess the nature of the problems. The case went to the Ecuadorian Supreme Court, where it was found that TEXACO had been highly negligent of the safety demands of where they drilled, as well as the environmental impacts of this negligence. The plaintiffs were awarded 7.5 billion dollars in damages, money which TEXACO Chevron had no intention of paying. The company removed their assets from Ecuador and have been subsequently sued in the countries which they moved their assets to. This includes Brazil, Canada and the US.
Over the course of the last 20 or so years, the legal battle for justice has become vastly more complex and expensive for the plaintiffs, attempting to sue TEXACO Chevron in different legal systems to no significant success.
Where there has been the most fighting, though, is in New York. Stephen Donziger, a New York based lawyer, has been fighting for a settlement on behalf of the Ecuadorian people for more than 15 years, and was instrumental in winning the case against TEXACO Chevron in Ecuador. However, Donziger was disbarred from practising law in the state of New York and placed under house arrest for alleged corruption in the Ecuadorian state system- a decision which the UN Human Rights Council called a violation of Donziger’s rights.
Chevron’s Corporate Propaganda
Where this case becomes uniquely dystopian is in how Chevron’s defence strategy has worked. Fighting against this case has become a point of principle for the oil giant, stating publicly that they would “fight [the lawsuit] until hell freezes over, and then fight it out on the ice.” The company has gone as far as to start an entire news organisation dedicated to propagandise against Donziger, the Ecuadorian courts as well as Texaco-Chevron’s culpability in the context of these open oil pits. The Amazon Post (the name of this organisation) has posted 11 stories questioning Donziger’s integrity as a lawyer over the last 9 months, and many more discussing his alleged corrupt practices. Reading this news organisation reads like Chevron speaking through a small, thinly veiled puppet. The propagandisation of the issues in a blatant attempt to manipulate public opinion and, if nothing else, comes off as a dystopian reflection of how ambitious corporate interest is in the modern world. The articles are no more than just inflammatory statements attacking Donziger’s character, with titles such as ‘Revisiting Steven Donziger’s fraud against Chevron in Ecuador’ and ‘Steven Donziger, An Idolized, Yet Corrupt Lawyer’. Paying attention to the language they use, both in their titles and their articles, the organisation is attempting to manipulate public opinion and limit public relations damage to their brand by providing incredibly biased and unreliable news in relation to the longstanding crisis.
The road ahead for justice
Unfortunately, finding justice looks unlikely to be easy. When Chevron moved their assets from Ecuador after the ruling, they pushed the arbitration from a national court issue to an international legal issue. This has many implications. The first of which is that the Plaintiffs must file abroad where Chevron has assets. The second is that they have had to restart their legal processes in those countries, adding years to the time between when they filed the original lawsuit and the potential opportunity to get the oil pits sufficiently. The third implication is that the courts they file in must also arbitrate on Chevron’s culpability in an extremely costly process for the plaintiffs, all whilst fighting against some of the most highly paid lawyers on earth.
Fighting in the New York courts system has proved difficult. Stephen Donziger, the lawyer which has taken on this case in the state, has been fighting for years to provide legal support to the Ecuadorian people who were affected by Chevron’s negligence. His story is too long and too complicated to understand in depth here, but The Guardian website has an overview written by Eric Brockovich which I highly recommend readers interested in learning more look at, as it collates the nature of what seems to amount to judicial corruption in New York state, as well as falsified testimony which put Donziger under house arrest in the first place. Though he has now been released, he is barred from practising in New York given the ruling.
Though the future for justice is in doubt, the tenacity of the legal challenges ahead provide an obvious picture- a corporation dedicated to avoiding responsibility using their vast resources fighting against a small but dedicated group seeking a fair and just solution.
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