SUNS 4328 Friday 20 November 1998
ENVIRONMENT: CASE AGAINST TEXACO RESUMES
Washington, Nov. 18 (IPS/Danielle Knight) -- Communities from Ecuador's Amazon rain forest resumed their demands in a U.S. Federal District Court this week for compensation from the Texaco oil company for polluting rivers and lakes near their homes and decimating their food supply.
About 70 people living in the Amazon Basin in Ecuador charged that during two decades of oil drilling in the Amazon, Texaco dumped more than 3,000 gallons of crude oil into the environment.
Indigenous communities, said the contamination of rivers, streams and lakes had killed off fish and wild game stocks that once made up their food supply.
"My clients are asking that Texaco compensate them, and clean up their land and waters," Cristobal Bonifaz, one of the lead attorneys representing the plaintiffs, told the court Tuesday. If he is successful in his legal tactics, the case will set an important precedent for groups trying to sue companies for environmental damages in the countries where the companies are based.
Currently in its sixth year of litigation, the case has been bounced from the district court to the appeal court and back again. A Federal District Court judge in New York, dismissed the case in
1996 saying it should be heard in Ecuador. But his decision was overturned by a higher three-judge panel in a court of appeals.
After this week's hearing the court adjourned until February 2, 1999 when a ruling will be made whether the case will be tried in the United States or will be referred to Ecuadorian courts.
The New York-based Texaco - which has not had operations in Ecuador since 1992 - wants the case heard by an Ecuadorian court.
"Since the operation was in Ecuador and all the files and information are there in that country we think the case should be heard in Ecuador," Faye Cox, spokeswoman for Texaco, told IPS. "I want to add that we feel like we acted responsibly during our total 26 years of operations in Ecuador."
During Tuesday's hearing, Ivonne A. Baki, the Ambassador of Ecuador presented a statement on its position of the case to the Judge Jed Rakoff. The appeals court has requested it make its opinion known publicly on where it thought the case should be held. Ecuador had been a partner in the oil consortium that Texaco was operating with while in Ecuador. Now the government of Ecuador owns the whole consortium.
"The Government of Ecuador regards these cases as litigation between private individuals and a foreign private corporation," it said. "Therefore, the intervention of the Republic of Ecuador as a
party is not necessary."
Baki's statement also said Ecuador would not be willing to "waive its sovereign immunity and be subject to rulings by Courts in the United States." It also reminded the judge of that an earlier
settlement had already been reached between the Ecuador and Texaco and its subsidiary companies.
On May 4, 1995, Texaco's subsidiary TexPet signed an settlement contract with Ecuador's Minister of Energy and Mines, and other members of the oil consortium, agreeing to clean-up contamination
from oil spills that had affected indigenous communities. Texaco paid 40 million dollars in clean-up costs, according to Cox.
Lawyers representing the plaintiffs want the case held in the United States.
"Texaco obviously has an in with the government of Ecuador," said Bonifaz. "The level of corruption in that country is very high. How could Ecuador, which does not even recognize that my clients are
citizens because many cannot read or write - judge this case fairly."
"Texaco is just trying to avoid any liability that it could face in the United States," added Joseph Kohn, another attorney for the plaintiffs. "Why is it so inconvenient for Texaco to have the case
heard in New York when the company is based there."
Chris Jochnik, Coordinator for Latin America at the Center for Economic and Social Rights, told IPS from Quito, Ecuador, that even if the case is moved to Ecuador, at least it will be heard.
"Right now Texaco has no legal presence in Ecuador so people affected by environmental contamination have no means of holding the company accountable," said Jochnik. "But at least Ecuador is a chance for the case to go to trial."
Working with indigenous and environmental groups in Ecuador, in 1993 Jochnick's organisation sent a team of scientists from Harvard University to document the alleged damage left by Texaco's oil operations.
They found extremely high levels of toxic chemicals in waterways throughout the region, including drinking water sources. Subsequent interviews with community leaders, organisations, and government and industry officials "confirmed a history of reckless practices and a total absence of regulatory monitoring," says Jochnik.
"Effects of the pollution have been far ranging, having impacts on the health, culture, the environment and nutrition of about 30,000 people living in the Amazon Basin," he said.
"Texaco just dumped its waste when it was in Ecuador. It dumped over four million gallons of toxic waste everyday."