Monday, March 8, 2010

Pollution, Sickness, and Death: Interview with Indigenous Leader Emergildo Criollo from the Ecuadorian Amazon

Online news magazine Alternet has a powerful interview with Cofan indigenous leader Emergildo Criollo, who was in the San Francisco Bay Area last week to pay a visit to Chevron and its new CEO John Watson. Though Watson refused to accept Emergildo's letter appealing to him to clean up Chevron's toxic contamination of his rainforest home, Emergildo spoke forcefully to Chevron executives, lawmakers in the State Capitol, allies, and news media. In his powerful interview with Cameron Scott, Emergildo says:

We've gotten exactly three things from the company: pollution, sickness and death; that's it.

In the interview, Emergildo describes the impacts of Chevron on his community and culture beyond the pollution, gives an overview of the history of the lawsuit against the oil company, and punches holes in Chevron's shift-the-blame talking points. Read the full interview here.

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