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The U.S. petroleum company, Texaco, is trying to avoid paying for ecological destruction it caused in the Ecuadorean Amazon, claiming it was bankrupt at the time the damage was done, a lawyer involved in the case said. That contradicts the company's earlier commitment - made in August - to pay compensation for socio-economic problems it has caused.
"The company said it was bankrupt when the damages occured," Cristobal Bonifaz, a lawyer for the indigenous people of Ecuador, told reporters. He said Texaco's new position was outlined in papers presented to the local courts. Bonifaz said Texaco claimed the damage was done before the company declared bankruptcy in 1988.
The company signed a memorandum along with the Ecuadorean government, on 3 August 1994, to set up medical centers and greenhouses, as a way of redressing some of the damage done by its operations, which lasted from 1964 to 1992.
Bonifaz described Texaco's attitude as contradictory. He said while arguing about the difficulty in fulfilling its obligations, the company had reported large incomes in 1993.
Indigenous communities and local ecological groups sued Texaco for one billion dollars before a New York court, when medical studies showed that some 30,000 people had been affected by cancer and skin diseases caused by unsafe petroleum extraction.
The indigenous people claim that the petroleum company knowingly caused damages to the ecosystem and the population of the Ecuadorean Amazon. They accuse Texaco of using unsafe exploration and exploitation systems, whereby water used in drilling was not reinjected, and large amounts of contaminated water were dumped into Amazon rivers.
Texaco denies the charges, but to date, the court has rejected all allegations and has not allowed attorneys for the plaintiffs to review internal documentation from the U.S. company.
Bonifaz said Texaco was a classic example of "a multinational that goes to a country in need of development, extracts billions (of dollars) in profits and then tries to manipulate the legal system to evade responsibility for the environmental damages."
Official studies show that in these 28 years, the company destroyed a significant part of the habitat of the Ecuadorean Amazon and spilled 450,000 barrels of crude oil, due to human or technical errors. Petroleum is Ecuador's leading export product, with sales financing 50 percent of the fiscal budget.
"The Ecuadorian government estimates that ruptures to the major pipeline alone have discharged over 16.8 million gallons of oil into the Amazon over the past eighteen years (compared to the 10.8 million gallon of the Exxon Valdez spill). Discharges from secondary pipelines have never been estimated or recorded; however, the smaller flowlines discharge approximately 10,000 gallons per week of petroleum into the Amazon, and each day production pits dump an astounding 4.3 million gallons of toxic production wastes and treatment chemicals into Amazonia's rivers, streams and groundwater" [Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., 1991, "Preface," Amazon Crude (NY: Natural Resources Defense Council)].
Update on the War:
In early February 1995, Luís Macas, President of the Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador (CONAIE) called for a cease fire in the war that has broken out between Peru and Ecuador. The war is taking place along the border of the Oriente of Ecuador, where there has been extensive petroleum exploration, extraction, spillage, and environmental destruction. Peru and Ecuador are fighting to control the mineral wealth of the region. According to Macas, more than 400 indigenous communities (Quichua, Shuar, Achuar, Siona, Secoya, Cof'an, and Shiwiar) are located in the area of military confrontation and are directly affected by the conflict. The fighting is mostly in the Zamora Chinchipe and Morona Santiago provinces; the Pastaza, Napo, and Sucumbios provinces are also affected.
Macas has called on the UN Security Council, the Organization of American States (OAS), friendly governments, and the Pope, for mediation in the conflict. He stated "the need to defend our resources as a way to support the development of education and health in our countries and, in particular, this strategic zone. We are opposed to these resources being given to private interests, either national or foreign, which would result in them being diverted from our own development."
In the context of the ongoing war, it should be noted that only as recently as June 1994, there was armed conflict between the Ecuadorian authorities and various Indian peoples in the Oriente. At that time, CONAIE and other national indigenous organizations protested the agrarian development law which had been passed by congress without the debate required by the National Constitution. The protesters blocked the Panamerican Highway, took over government buildings, mobilized mass demonstrations and, in the Amazon, took over oil wells. The government declared a state of emergency and initiated a wave of military violence that included beatings, murders, and invasions of indigenous territories.
for more information, contact:
CONAIE
Casilla 17171235
Los Granados 2553 y 6 de Diciembre
Quito, ECUADOR.
tel: (593-2) 248930; fax: (593-2) 442271
e-mail: ccc@conaie.ec
Fourth World Bulletin • Fall 1994/Winter 1995
Copyright © 1996 by the Fourth World Center
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