Chevron’s victims in Ecuador demand the State appeal The Hague’s decision

Members of the Union of Victims of Texaco (Chevron) demanded the State Attorney General appeal the ruling issued in the second instance by the Court of Appeals of The Hague, leaving without effect the sanction for the company to compensate the victims of the contamination and would force the State to pay the company.

“Mr. Attorney General of the State, if you do not exercise a real and technical defense, step aside and allow a true Ecuadorian, who loves our country, to do so,” said Donald Moncayo, coordinator of the Union of People Affected by Texaco in a press conference at the headquarters of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (CONAIE).

In June of this year, the Court of Appeals of The Hague rejected Ecuador’s request to annul a 2018 arbitration award, which held the Ecuadorian State responsible for issuing a sentence that disposes that company to pay US$9.5 billion because of the environmental damage caused in that area.

Lawyer Pablo Fajardo said that if Ecuador does not defend itself in law and does not achieve the nullity of that arbitration award, “in the coming weeks and months, the arbitration panel will order Ecuador to pay at least, we believe, US$1 billion to Chevron.”

Zenaida Yasacama, vice-president of Conaie, pointed out that the Attorney General’s Office has not taken any action against the second instance ruling issued by the Court of Appeals of the Netherlands, as it has not yet filed an appeal to that ruling.

The panelists indicated that, due to this ruling, the Ecuadorian State must pay Chevron billions of dollars when it should be the oil company that must compensate those affected by the environmental damage caused.

They ratified that they will continue the actions underway to seek justice for what they consider an “environmental crime” committed by Chevron in the Ecuadorian Amazon rainforest.

In addition, they rejected the arbitration award obtained by this transnational on August 30, 2018, after it resorted to the retroactive application of a Bilateral Treaty for the Protection of Investments, signed between Ecuador and the United States.

Texaco extracted oil in the Ecuadorian Amazon from 1967 to 1990; in 2001, it merged with Chevron Corporation to form Chevron-Texaco, and in 2007 it took the name of Chevron Petroleum Company.

Among the consequences of the contamination derived from Texaco’s operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a high cancer rate is reported in the affected areas of four cantons (municipalities) due to the impact on water sources.

From 2019 to April 2022 alone, 407 cancer cases were registered in the towns of Shushufindi, Lago Agrio, Sacha, and Coca, where Chevron carried out its operations, and of the total, 132 deaths have already been counted.

Four previous sentences ruled in favor of the Ecuadorian people, among which it was established that the oil company should pay 9.5 billion dollars to repair the damage caused, but this has not happened due to delays in the legal processes.

With information from Sputnik