Ecuadorian rainforest leaders have traveled from the Amazon jungle to the city of San Ramon to demand an audience with C.E.O. of U.S. oil company ChevronTexaco, David O’Rilley. Their request for a meeting has thus far been firmly denied. The Ecuadorian leaders have traveled to meet with O’Rilley in hopes of having an open dialogue and creating new solutions. As the Ecuadorian leaders are in San Ramon, the long pending, $1 billion lawsuit is traveling through the court system. On May 14 the Superior Justice Court of the Ecuadorian city of Nueva Loja accepted the case against ChevronTexaco. This is a lawsuit that more than 30,000 indigenous peoples and campesinos of the northeastern provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana have been pressing for over ten years. First tried in 1993 in U.S. Federal Court, in 2002 the 2nd U.S Circuit Court of Appeals of New York decided that the case should be tried in Ecuador.
According to prosecutors, Texaco spilled 16 million gallons of crude oil and 20 billion gallons of contaminated water, actions which caused, in addition to destruction of the environment and contamination of drinking water, documented cases of cancer, miscarriages and respiratory difficulties among people of the local communities. In addition, five indigenous groups are on the verge of extinction in the areas where the company operated: the Cofan, Secoya, Siona, Huaorani, and Quichua. Prosecutors in this case say that these violations go against the International Labor Organization Convention 169 as well as the Ecuadorian Constitution, which states that the collective rights of indigenous communities must be respected, and that the communities must be consulted when they could be affected by oil exploration or mining.
