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French Solidarity for Ecuador in Chevron/Texaco Case
Paris, Dec 11 (Prensa Latina) An Ecuador solidarity committee was created here on Wednesday to support Ecuador''s international struggle for justice in face of the serious environmental damage caused by the U.S. corporation Chevron/Texaco.
Ecuadorian Ambassador Carlos Jativa denounced that the Texaco oil company, which merged with Chevron in 2001, exploited hydrocarbons in Ecuador for almost 30 years, from 1964 to 1992, without fulfilling the regulations established for the industry.
As a consequence of such practices, the company produced environmental damage 87 times worse than the BP oil spil in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, he said.
The corporation not only refuses to recognize its responsibility, it also sued the Ecuadorian government in an international court, and is carrying out a slander campaign against the government and people of Ecuador, he said.
The new French solidarity coalition, which includes France-Libertés and the Movement against Racism and for Friendship among the Peoples, will be coordinated by the Committee for International Support to the Citizens' Revolution, according to activist William Herrera.
Two million hectares of the Ecuadorian Amazon are affected by the environmental damage, and for the last two decades, some 30,000 people have been involved in a struggle for Chevron/Texaco to pay compensation, according to local activists.
In November, an Ecuadorian court ruled that Texaco/Chevron should pay $9.5 billion in damages, but the company refuses to accept the decision, and initiated legal action in the United States against the plaintiffs.
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