Chevron Evades Responsibility in Ecuador... And Helps Fugitive Employees Evade Justice

The Chevron Pit posted a new article that looks at the shady ways in which Chevron not only works to evade responsibility for its contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon, but helps its employees to evade justice. There is a good explanation of the fraudulent testing methods Chevron has employed in a vain attempt to convince the courts that no contamination exists where in fact it is pervasive, toxic, and all-too-apparent to the communities living amidst the poison.

The article goes on to connect the dots from Chevron's fraudulent testing methods and "clean-up" in Ecuador to the bigger pattern of fraud and deceit employed by the company, including coaching former contractors and felons in sting operations against a judge in order to disrupt the trial of a case in which they face a $27 billion liability. Read the entire piece here.

– Han

Born and raised in Baltimore, Han Shan is a human rights and environmental justice campaigner living in New York City. He is an organizer with the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for Amazon Watch.

Avatar Director James Cameron on a Mission: Will He Support Real-life Ecuador Struggle Against Chevron?

A friend of mine, and a well-connected dude, sent me a cryptic email the other morning: "U need to talk to James Cameron."

Right, sure, I'll just give James 'King of the World' Cameron, director of runaway hit Avatar, a ring on his cell phone. I wrote a quick note back to my friend, assuming he had just seen Avatar and thought I should pitch Cameron on donating to Amazon Watch and our work supporting real-life indigenous struggles against corporate evil-doers. Okay, yeah, nice idea, but c'mon.

My friend called a few minutes later and told me that he somehow ended up at a little cocktail reception at the Four Seasons in New York, where Cameron was shmoozing Academy members ahead of the Oscars. Apparently, Cameron gave a powerful speech about how he's "on a mission" to support environmental causes. He specifically noted how moved and inspired he was by a screening of Avatar in Quito for a group of Shuar and Achuar indigenous leaders and community members from the Amazon rainforests of Ecuador – people that Amazon Watch and our allies have worked to support.

Then, last night at an event in support of the Natural Resources Defense Council, Cameron called himself "proudly anti-corporate" (which I must say is a bit tough to square with the Avatar-McDonald's tie-in campaign) and went on to say that “ ‘Avatar’ asks us all to be warriors for the earth.”

Avatar is a powerful allegory on the evils of war, corporate greed and exploitation, colonialism, and disconnection from the natural world. The Na'vi – an amalgamation of Western fantasies about indigenous cultures from the Amazon Basin to to Bali to the Great Plains of North America – fight back valiantly against the evil RDA corporation and its ruthless military force. And despite the cliché and patronizing narrative, Avatar has brought to the masses a popular film about awakening to the ills of rapacious capitalism, recognizing the inherent interdependence of the natural world, and defending the rights of its indigenous inhabitants.

Of course, Avatar has had plenty of critics, besides cranky right-wingers who are offended by its message, even though they haven't seen it. In an article entitled 'When Will White People Stop Making Movies Like 'Avatar'?,' technology and culture critic Annalee Newitz calls it a "rehash of an old white guilt fantasy." She writes,

"This is a classic scenario you've seen in non-scifi epics from Dances With Wolves to The Last Samurai, where a white guy manages to get himself accepted into a closed society of people of color and eventually becomes its most awesome member."

But others have a different take. In a widely-circulated article on Huffington Post, Josh Schrei writes about some of the parallels between Avatar and real-life indigenous struggles. And guest-blogging at Mother Nature Network, environmental activist and producer Harold Linde asks, "Is Avatar radical environmental propaganda?" (the answer is yes, which is a good thing.) And a number of organizations who work to advance indigenous rights and defend against corporate pillage of indigenous resources are trying to get the director's attention.

The latest push is from our friends at Rainforest Action Network (RAN), who are reaching out through online social media like twitter and facebook to encourage people to ask Cameron to speak up for the indigenous people and peasant farmers in the Ecuadorian Amazon whose rainforest home was ravaged and poisoned by oil giant Chevron.

RAN's new Acting Executive Director Becky Tarbotton has an article on San Francisco Chronicle's City Brights blog. The title is the same as the tweets I've been seeing going around, 'I want Avatar Oscar speech to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against Chevron'

Some film geeks are debating about whether James Cameron should win Best Picture or whether his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow deserves it for The Hurt Locker, a very different film than Avatar. But Avatar has a bunch of nominations and Cameron will likely take to the stage at least a handful of times on Oscar night.

As Becky writes, "What if in his acceptance speech James Cameron mentioned the real-life Indigenous Ecuadorean heroes who are battling the real-life Chevron bad guys?" It would be a big boost to the campaign to hold the company accountable and demand justice for the people of Ecuador.

You can help make it happen. Read Becky's article to learn how:

I WANT AVATAR OSCAR SPEECH TO MENTION REAL-LIFE ECUADOR STRUGGLE AGAINST CHEVRON
By Becky Tarbotton

Once upon a time there was a movie.

Hundreds of millions of people around the world saw this movie. They were transported to the beautiful jungles of Pandora and introduced to the blue Na'vis and the evil RDA corporation.

Avatar (or unil-tìran-tokx in Na'vi) has been nominated for 9 Oscars. James Cameron, its infamous creator, has explicitly said he wants the highest grossing film in history to inspire mass environmental activism.

Fast forward to March 7. You're watching the Oscars and Avatar wins.

What if in his acceptance speech James Cameron mentioned the real-life Indigenous Ecuadorean heroes who are battling the real-life Chevron bad guys?

Retweet and help make it happen! I want Avatar director James Cameron to mention real-life Ecuador struggle against #Chevron at #Oscars:http://bit.ly/aOwuNI #realavatar

If James Cameron called out Chevron in his Oscars speech a world transfixed by this film phenomenon could take off the 3D glasses and step into a reality where they can make a difference.

The story of Chevron in Ecuador is no less dramatic, tragic, or inspiring than the fantasy world of Pandora.

The location: Avatar takes place in the beautiful jungles of Pandora where communities have been living in harmony with the Earth for centuries. Much like the communities depicted on Pandora, the Indigenous communities in the Ecuadorean Amazon rainforest relied on the Earth for clean water, healthy food and cultural heritage. They understood the secrets and medicines the forests held, and how invaluable it is to protect those ecosystems.

Enter the RDA corporation on Pandora and the Chevron oil corporation in the Amazon jungles of Ecuador. RDA built an extraction base, just as Chevron (then Texaco) built the oil boom-town Lago Agrio in the 1960s. Both corporations proceeded to drill like there was no tomorrow with no regard for the health of the environment or the communities.

During decades of drilling, Chevron (then Texaco) left 17 million gallons of crude oil spills, 917 unlined crude pits, and 18 billion (with a "B") gallons on toxic waste-water. That is about 9 gallons of toxics for every dollar Avatar (the highest grossing film in history) has made so far.

The Characters: In the fantasy, the Na'vi sit on the most sought after resources on Pandora. In real life, the Ecuadorean communities once sat atop a vast deposit of highly sought after crude oil. The Indigenous communities in the region where Chevron (then Texaco) operated have lost 95% of their ancestral land due to the impact of oil operations. People are suffering from birth defects, illness, cancer, and now death.

The Corporation: The RDA Corporation in Avatar is a money hungry, by-all-means, at-all-costs company that will stop at nothing to get their hands on the minerals of Pandora. Chevron (then Texaco) operated on the same mandate. Both RDA Corporation and Chevron refuse to acknowledge basic human rights and use cut-and-run operations that leave communities devastated. Chevron (then Texaco) deliberately used methods that were illegal in the US, that they knew would harm people, but allowed them to save a few dollars.

The Villain: Every action movie needs a villain, but not every corporation needs one. Chevron's new CEO John Watson is not a military man in the way the Colonel Miles Quaritch is, and has the chance right now to change course, to be a different character, in this story, and right the wrongs of his predecessors. John Watson can listen to the Ecuadorean people and the global community and clean up Ecuador.

The Ending: Courageous Ecuadoreans have been struggling for decades to force Chevron to clean up its toxic legacy. They are fighting for their right to drink clean water, for their families, for their communities to be restored and healed and for their cultural survival. They protest at home, travel to the US to confront Chevron CEOs and board members, and 30,000 are engaged in the largest environmental lawsuit of all time- a $27 billion liability for Chevron.

If Director James Cameron accepts an Academy Award next month, he should also let his legions of fans know that while Pandora is fictional, what is happening to communities in Ecuador because of Chevron's actions is as real as it gets.

– Han

Born and raised in Baltimore, Han Shan is a human rights and environmental justice campaigner living in New York City. He is an organizer with the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for Amazon Watch.

Profile of Chevron Contamination Cancer Victim in Ecuador: Rosana Sisalima

The Chevron Pit blog has posted the second installment of "a series of personal stories about how the oil contamination left behind by Texaco [now Chevron] has impacted the people living near the oil company’s former oil sites" from the book 'Crude Reflections' by photographers Lou Dematteis and Kayana Szymczak.

Below is an interview with Rosana Sisalima who lived in San Carlos, in the Oriente region of Ecuador, near Texaco oil wells, and waste pits abandoned by Texaco (now owned by Chevron). She succumbed to uterine cancer in May 2006; her husband died of stomach cancer.

An excerpt from the interview:

We pleaded with the oil company to clean the pits, and they finally showed up, only to cover the pits with dirt. But in heavy rainstorms, the pits overflow and waste runs into the streams, contaminating them.

Uterine cancer victim Rosana Sisalima with her granddaughter at their home in San Carlos on November 24, 2004. Rosana succumbed to cancer in 2006. Photo by Lou Dematteis.

Transcription of an interview with Rosana Sisalima:

Our house is located between a [Texaco] toxic waste pit and an oil spill. There are three [Texaco] oil wells nearby. A big oil spill had just occurred when we moved here. The oil company burned the oil and there was smoke everywhere. The former owner of this farm died of stomach cancer three years after he sold it to us.

I’ve lived here for 22 years. I came with my husband and 10 children from Loja. We bought this farm which is surrounded by two [Texaco] open waste pits. So many animals fell in; chickens, dogs, watusas, rabbits. We pulled them out and cleaned them, but they were covered with sludge, and died anyway.

We pleaded with the oil company to clean the pits, and they finally showed up, only to cover the pits with dirt. But in heavy rainstorms, the pits overflow and waste runs into the streams, contaminating them.

We bathed in the river and got our drinking water there too.

We pushed the crude aside and dipped in our buckets, and we ate fish from that river. We never realized the river was contaminated.

I was diagnosed with uterine cancer in 1988. I went to Solca [the cancer hospital] and stayed there two months while they burned off the cancer until the doctor told me I was better.

My husband died of stomach cancer. He grew coffee, and worked almost until the day he died. One day he stopped eating. We went to the doctors and they operated but he had a malignant tumor and the cancer had already spread throughout his body. He was 64, so young.

I had a hysterectomy, then in 2004 gallbladder surgery. I had stomach aches, vomiting and diarrhea for over a year. I’ve been seriously ill. (Crying)

My children have helped me with medical costs. We sold our cattle, and we had to sell half of our farm, but I still don’t know how we’ll pay the rest.

Portrait of Rosana Sisalima at her home in San Carlos, May 2005. Photo by Kayana Szymczak.

– Han

Born and raised in Baltimore, Han Shan is a human rights and environmental justice campaigner living in New York City. He is an organizer with the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for Amazon Watch.

CRUDE Wins Cinema for Peace's Prestigious International Green Film Award

Documentary film CRUDE took home the top prize at the prestigious Cinema for Peace awards gala in Berlin on Monday. Joe Berlinger's powerful film won the International Green Film Award, last night at the prestigious, which was presented by President Mikhail Gorbachev and Leonardo DiCaprio.

According to the Cinema for Peace Mission Statement, its aim is "to promote peace and international understanding through the medium of film." A story on online film news site Indiewire notes that Crude "may have been passed up in the latest rounds of Awards Season, but director Joe Berlinger received a high level round of recognition Monday night in the German capital." As Indiewire explains, "CRUDE profiles the case by tens of thousands of Ecuadorans against Chevron over contamination of the Ecuadorean Amazon." Congratulations to Joe and everyone else who worked on CRUDE!


Did you miss this award-winning film in theaters?

That's okay – Amazon Watch is teaming up with our allies at Rainforest Action Network to promote the upcoming DVD release, with house party-style screening events across the U.S.! We're encouraging our supporters to help organize hundreds of CRUDE screening parties across the U.S. in late March so please sign up to host a screening! We'll provide a free DVD of CRUDE and resources to help your event be easy, fun, and successful.

– Han

Born and raised in Baltimore, Han Shan is a human rights and environmental justice campaigner living in New York City. He is an organizer with the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for Amazon Watch.

The 'Chevron Pit' Pulls No Punches, Picks Apart Pate's Playbook

The 'Chevron Pit' blog posted a powerful new article today analyzing Chevron's use of increasingly desperate legal and public relations tactics in its legal fight to evade responsibility for poisoning the rainforest home of tens of thousands of people in Ecuador.

The post picks apart why exactly the oil giant would put its General Counsel Hewitt Pate "squarely in the middle of what should have been a low-level food fight between the long-warring parties" and wonders aloud "about the judgment of Chevron's legal department, where it seems to be a job requirement to prove your machismo through frontline interviews."

It makes for juicy reading, delving into the (not so-?) surprising background of Chevron's top lawyers, including Deputy General Counsel Jim Haynes, who the post characterizes as "one of the Bush Administration "torture lawyers" under potential indictment in Spain and now unable to travel abroad for fear of arrest." Ouch.

It is rather amazing that the San Francisco Bay Area-based business manages to project such a green granola image to its employees, customers, and the general public, when its General Counsel's office and executive leadership is filled with right-wing political ideologues. Of course, regardless of Chevron's public pronouncements, the communities in which it operates have unfortunately seen the company's true face all too often.

The post concludes in strident and indignant tones, which ring quite true to me:

Chevron must realize that the old days of using political influence to quash legal cases in far-flung countries is winding down. In Ecuador, those days are clearly over. In the United States, the method doesn't work. The fact Chevron uses its new general counsel's limited credibility to distort basic facts shows how "quaint" Chevron is compared to its industry peers, most of whom (perhaps not coincidentally) reported far better financial results last quarter. "Quaint" is how former Bush Administration lawyers such as Chevron's Haynes and Alberto Gonzales – folks who never served in the armed forces themselves -- used to describe the Geneva Conventions when justifying those "harsh interrogation tactics" that the world considered torture. Most Americans would consider such talk profoundly unpatriotic, but in Chevron's legal department that's probably what passes for typical chatter around the water cooler. That, and the excitement generated by the Sarah Palin sighting at the latest Tea Party convention.

Since lost lives don't seem to have much impact on the thinking at Chevron, how many billions of dollars will have to be garnished before Chevron's Board wakes up to this internal hazard?

Go read the whole thing, and keep a watchful eye out for retaliation from Chevron's ruthless legal and PR machine.

– Han

Born and raised in Baltimore, Han Shan is a human rights and environmental justice campaigner living in New York City. He is an organizer with the Clean Up Ecuador campaign for Amazon Watch.