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 In what is one of the most unlikely and significant victories in environmental and human rights history, 30,000 indigenous people and campesinos won a $9.5 billion judgment in a class action suit after 20 years of ugly legal battles (now upheld by Ecuador‘s highest court). Unlikely because of the unprecedented and overwhelming pressure placed on the plaintiffs, their supporters, Ecuador and the Ecuadorian judicial system. And significant as it sets an encouraging precedent that those victimized by powerful corporate forces have hope for justice and a way to fight back.So how on Earth could this victory be so ridiculously, unethically and illegally turned on its head and evolve into the shocking display that just played out in a US Federal Court? And what repercussions and worrisome precedents could such reckless actions hold for corporate accountability and legal processes around the world?
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Tag Archives: Chevron Corporation
a message from dir. Branden
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 For the past two weeks we have brought you the courageous and heartbreaking story of Servio Curipoma and his ongoing struggle for clean water, a healthy environment and remediation of the toxic wasteland that Chevron left in his rainforest homeland. Speaking with him at his farm in Ecuador just last week, it was clear that he seeks only to be able to work his land and leave something for his children – to afford a peaceful and productive life – something that Chevron continues to deliberately deny him.
Servio’s fight is only going to get tougher as Chevron’s multibillion dollar legal defense continues to pour money into lambasting those seeking justice, those who have already won. The story is an endless circus of lies, vilification and a callousness that defies rationality. We need your support to keep the pressure up. We are doing everything we can to make sure Chevron doesn’t get away with the most blatant environmental crime in history. Amazon Watch will continue to work with the broad coalition of institutional shareholders, NGOs, affected peoples and individuals to pressure Chevron until they accept responsibility for their horrendous crime and do the right thing. After a 20-year legal battle, this is a case that is simply too big to fail. With your help we’ll continue to pressure Chevron, demand enforcement of the judgment and bear witness to its ridiculous countersuit alleging that the plaintiffs sued Chevron in an attempt to defraud them (Really?!). Please support Amazon Watch and our Clean Up Ecuador campaign today. Your contribution will help us continue to stand with Servio and the 30,000 other Ecuadorians who have suffered for too long. We will not allow Chevron to drown out their voices – to drown out the truth about what happened in Ecuador. For justice – for the opportunity to set an international precedent for the rights of indigenous peoples to defend their homes from companies seeking profits over people – please add your support. For the Amazon,
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What kind of love do you stand for?
In Tuesday’s Eye on the Amazon we told you about a dark love affair that’s long been going on between Chevron and Judge Kaplan; a scandalous kind of love that perverts justice and promotes persecution, enables human rights violations and compromises the health of entire communities in the Amazon. It’s a dirty ordeal perpetuated by Chevron’s ruthless efforts to protect itself from the $18 billion legal judgment it’s on the hook for. The company has engaged an army of relentless legal sharks – comprised of 60 law firms – and Judge Kaplan seems love-struck by his Big Oil partner as he thwarts justice in the case of Chevron’s desecration of the Amazon. But he’s just another tool in Chevron’s box.
Now we’re all for love here at Amazon Watch. In fact, it’s our love for the Amazon that motivates us daily to do everything we can to protect it and to support the rights of indigenous peoples there – the traditional stewards of the magnificent forest upon which we all depend. It’s why you support us. It’s this love that drives us, and it’s why we ask for your support.
We continue to fight for the clean kind of love and passion that flows through communities in the Amazon, like that which radiates from Servio Curipoma, an Ecuadorian farmer who came to seek justice at the Chevron shareholder meeting last May, calling for Chevron CEO John Watson to be fired. We stand for the love of people like Emergildo Criollo, a Cofán leader whose love for the children he lost to poisoning due of Chevron/Texaco’s willful negligence impels him to keep fighting against the company that destroyed his family. We stand for the love of the rainforest shown by the indigenous people who have lived in harmony with the Amazon for millennia. This is the kind of love story that gets us up in the morning, and that we ask you to be a part of.
In the face of scandal like the Chevron-Kaplan love affair, we need your help to keep writing this positive love story. Stand with us for the kind of love that celebrates life and a future we can all look forward to, that overpowers the dirty love between a massive corporation and a judge bent on shirking responsibility and continuing to put profits over people. We cannot allow them to hijack the ending of this story.
Please help us to continue our fight for these people and for the Amazon with your support. Will you make a contribution today so that we may keep fighting for justice in the Amazon?
You make this possible – together, we are powerful!
For the Amazon,
Branden Barber
Director of En
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Toxic Democracy
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| Corporations don’t have a vote. But when Chevron dumped $2.5 million into a super PAC devoted solely to running negative ads against environmentally-friendly congressional candidates, it exercised the kind of influence over our political system that few voters could ever dream of having.For Chevron, it was a business investment, an investment in congressional hard-liners who refuse to cut corporate welfare subsidies and ignore the overwhelming scientific evidence that suggests we are heading towards catastrophic climate change. Members who side with Chevron and Big Oil on such issues demonstrate by their actions that they would rather prop up the companies’ short-sighted, record-breaking profits than leave their grandchildren a livable planet.Chevron must be held accountable. Demand that Chevron keep its corporate profits out of We the People’s politics. Why is Greenpeace involved? Because this sort of corporate meddling in elections is toxic to our democracy, and impedes our ability to pass any kind of comprehensive environmental legislation— including legislation to tackle climate change. In Chevron’s case, it also appears to be illegal, according to a 90-page complaint filed with the Federal Election Commission by Public Citizen, with Greenpeace’s support.1 Despite the Supreme Court’s abominable Citizens United ruling, Chevron’s political spending seems to have violated the law because Chevron is a federal contractor. Chevron has received government contracts worth more than $44 million since 2000. The Citizens United ruling didn’t eliminate the laws against bribery in federal contracting, which prohibit contractors like Chevron from directly or indirectly supporting candidates for elected office. Allowing Chevron to get away with this apparent violation would create a self-perpetuating cycle of corruption, in which corporations spend their money to elect candidates, who then reward the corporations with government contracts and other favors, which in turn generate more revenue to be spent on still more candidates— actively destroying our environment in the process. Help Greenpeace & Public Citizen break the cycle and tell Chevron to keep its corrupting cash out of our democracy. Thanks for all you do, Your friends at Greenpeace ——————————— 1 http://www.citizen.org/chevron-fec-complaint-super-connected-report-update |
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The Amazon and Oil Contamination … Rainforest Action NetWork
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How can you help the communities of the Amazon fighting oil contamination and a historic health crisis?
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