Actors
The People and Organizations behind it.
Indigenous populations
Member of the Cofan Tribe showing the hazardous waste in his ancestral domain.
Source: www.takepart.com
One of the main actors are the indigenous peoples who have been displaced by the dispossession of their territories and mostly by the contamination of their territory and only resource of living. Ultimately this has condemned their alimentation and impaired their further development and their healthy reproduction. [1]
The Kichwa located along the Napo and Aguarico rivers. It is one of the ethnic groups with the largest population and has had social, political, cultural contact with the rest of the population. The Shuar who not only live in the northern Amazon region, but their population extends from the foothills of the Andes east until the south of Peru. The Shuar tribe became famous because of their unusual tradition to shrink their enemies heads, also known as “Tsantsa”. The Waorani or Wao, speak the Huaorani language, they are more like hunter-gatherers than horticulturists, they spend much time exploring the forest for potential new resources that can be use in the community[2] The Cofán or A’i which are are located not only in Ecuador but also in southern Colombia they consider themselves not only hunters but fishers aswell and they speak their ancestral language, A’Ingae. Dureno is the largest Cofán population center which encompasses four subcommunities: Dureno, Pisorie Ccanque, Baboroé, and Totoa Nai´qui.[3]
[1] Kimerling, „Transnational Operations, Bi-National Injustice“, 463.
[2] Rival, „The Growth of Family Trees“, 636.
[3] „Cofan People“.
Steven Dozinger
Steven Dozinger.
Source: www.greenpeace.com (Retrieved on 20.08.2021)
Steven Donziger served as the leading legal consultant to the plaintiffs in the Aguinda v. ChevronTexaco case, and was involved in the litigation since it began in 1993. On 2018 Chevron filed a lawsuit under the RICO ( Racketeering Influence and Corrupt Organizations) against Donzinger. He was suspended as a lawyer on the charges of fraudulence, bribery and witness tampering during the lawsuit against Texaco. In 2020 he was found guilty on six counts of criminal contempt and therefore disbarred.
Nevertheless, many still see this decision as controversial, for example the magazine Forbes referred to this case as “one of the most ethically egregious cases ever seen”[1] and around 30 Nobel Prize winners, the European Parliament, bar associates worldwide, prominent politicians including New York Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez stand by the side of the environmental lawyer and support his innocence.
International NGOs like Global Witness and environmental groups had criticized this trial as an Strategy to intimidate the plaintiffs and bankrupt and exhaust those who attempt to challenge such a big corporation. [2]
[1] Krauss, „Steven Donziger Is Disbarred“.
[2] Amazon, „ChevronToxico | The Campaign for Justice in Ecuador“.
Judith Kimerling
Judith Kimerling
Source: www.greenpeace.com (Retrieved on 20.08.2021)
Judith Kimerling a graduate of Yale Law School and former New York State assistant attorney general travels to Ecuador to work with Indigenous Organizations who helped her document for the first time the impact of Oil production on the communities and the environment.
The research documented by Judith Kimerling since her first visit in 1989 was the basis for the environmental lawsuit filled for the first time in a New York Court
Kimerling was awarded on 2011 the Albertson Medal in Sustainable Development for her work in defense of the Amazon rainforest the communities that depend on it for their culture and survival.
Amazon Watch
Amazon Watch Logo
Source: www.amazonwatch.org (Retrieved on 15.07.2021)
Amazon Watch is a nonprofit organization founded in 1996 to protect the rainforest and supports the rights of Indigenous peoples in the Amazon
The organization worked closely with lawyer Steven Donziger in the case against Chevron therefore it was also acused of playing a big role in the corrupt lawsuit scandal and to attempt to extort billions of dollars from Chevron.
Texaco, Inc.
Logo from Texaco, Inc “The Texas Company”
Source: www.wikipedia.org (Retrieved on 15.07.2021)
Texaco, known also as the Texas Company, was founded in 1902 at Sour Lake. A successful company that started its operations in Texas but withing a few years expanded his activities to Europe (1905), Africa and Mexico (1911), among the services it provided are, refine of crude, marketing, and ship crude oil and natural gas.[1] It was not until 1960 that Texaco entered the home of five indigenous Amazonian ethnic groups. The complex corporate structure of Texaco is divided as such; until 1977 Texaco works in a consortium with Gulf Oil. In 1974 the state oil company, obtained 25 percent shares of this consortium and in 1977 it became the biggest shareholder when Gulf also transferred his shares. On On October 15, 2000, Chevron announced acquisition of Texaco and within its lawsuit.
During Texaco’s years in the country, it drilled approximately 356 oil wells and opened at least 1,000 pits in the jungle, where crude oil, water, and toxic sludge, was dumped. Additionally, the polluting contents of some pools were set on fire along with everything that was located nearby. It continues to it highlight the green gases that were released into the environment, polluting water, and soil. Also, it points that the oil company is responsible for the spillage of at least 59.9 billion liters of oil waste and 108 million liters of crude oil in the Amazon and most probably more than 2 million hectares of the Ecuadorian Amazon were affected. [2]
[1] „About The Texas Company – Texaco“.
[2] Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores y Movilidad Humana, „El caso Chevron / Texaco en Ecuador Una lucha por la justicia ambiental y social“.