Zuky: Derechos Indigenas — Ecuadorian Lawsuit Against Chevron-Texaco

Thursday, September 11, 2008

Derechos Indigenas — Ecuadorian Lawsuit Against Chevron-Texaco

Between 1970 and 1992, Texaco made off with $30 billion worth of petroleum from the northern Ecuadorian rainforest, while illegally dumping 18 billion gallons of acutely toxic sludge into 650 open pits near streams, swamps, and rivers which sustain local life. Ecologists believe it to be the second worst environmental catastrophe in human history, next to Chernobyl. In 1993, five Ecuadorian indigenous tribes filed a class action lawsuit in US federal court against Texaco (Aguinda v. Texaco) and have been waging legal battle ever since. The case turned a corner in 2003 when it moved to the Ecuadorian superior court; recently, another milestone was reached when the court's independent expert report assessed the environmental damage at $8 billion and recommended that Texaco (now folded into Chevron) pay damages of up to $16 billion. If the plaintiffs win this lawsuit, it will be a landmark victory for indigenous peoples everywhere in the fight to defend themselves against the toxic tentacles of corporatist neo-colonialism. This week's Foreign Exchange with Daljit Dhaliwal takes a look at the case:

Posted by Kai at 01:07 PM | Permalink

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Horrible story! Hopeful note. Thanks for posting this.

Posted by: changeseeker | Sunday, September 14, 2008 at 06:23 PM

Changeseeker, yes it is both horrible and hopeful. And an important model of social change worth emulating, it seems to me. I'll keep an eye on how the story unfolds and hopefully will post follow ups...

Posted by: Kai | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 11:15 AM

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Reflection

Through holding together, restraint is certain to come about. The yielding obtains the decisive place, and those above and those below correspond with it. Strong and gentle; the strong is central and its will is done. This is called the Taming Power of the Small.
— The I Ching, hexagram 9: Hsiao Chu / The Taming Power of the Small

Highlights

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Ink Not Pixels

The Outlaw Bible of American Essays
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Jean Pfaelzer: Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans
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Jennifer Gordon: Suburban Sweatshops: The Fight for Immigrant Rights
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Joyce Carol Oates: On Boxing
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Louise Derman-Sparks: Teaching/Learning Anti-Racism: A Developmental Approach
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