Indigenous leader confronts Chevron
By Rick Kearns, Today correspondent
Story Published: Mar 18, 2010
Emergildo Criollo traveled to California recently from his indigenous
village in Ecuador to the home of Chevron’s new CEO John Watson and then
to a meeting with state lawmakers, demanding that the oil giant Chevron
“… take responsibility for their actions and clean up our rivers and
forests – our homes.”
Criollo, a leader of the Cofan people from the Oriente region of
Ecuador, grew up in one of the areas where Chevron (then Texaco) was
drilling and has been the subject of a massive lawsuit. He came to
Chevron’s base of operations to say that the contamination killed two of
his sons, along with many other Ecuadorians, and caused his wife to
contract uterine cancer.
“I want to say to our indigenous brothers in the U.S. that we, the
indigenous people of Ecuador need support to get Chevron to clean up the
Amazon,” Criollo said. “We need your support to push this new CEO to
take action.
“The contamination still exists. The rainforest is sacred, and part of
it is our pharmacy which has been destroyed.”
The March visit coincides with another round of legal actions taken on
behalf of 30,000 Ecuadorians, many of them indigenous, who are suing
Chevron, accusing the company of dumping billions of gallons of
wastewater from oil operations into the rainforest and abandoning nearly
1,000 open, unlined pits containing crude oil and toxic waste. The
plaintiffs in the lawsuit assert that the contamination has caused tens
of thousands of cases of cancer, miscarriages, birth defects and other
illnesses.
Recent press reports are predicting that a decision in the case, now in
an Ecuadorian court, could come as early as this summer and that Chevron
could be ordered to pay as much as $27 billion to the plaintiffs.
Emergildo Criollo, (center) a leader of the Cofan people from the
Oriente region of Ecuador, walked up Happy Valley Road in Lafayette,
Calif. on his way to deliver a petition signed by 325,000 people to
Chevron CEO John Watson.
“It is time for Chevron to listen to Emergildo, the 30,000 Ecuadorians
who are suffering and dying because of Chevron’s policies, and the
325,000 plus people from around the globe who believe that energy
shouldn’t cost lives,” said Maria Ramos, Change Chevron Campaign
director at Rainforest Action Network, who accompanied Criollo on the
visit to the Watson home in Lafayette, Calif.
As part of his effort to publicize the issue, Criollo and a group of
U.S.-based activists went first to the home of Watson March 2, and then
to company headquarters later in the afternoon and on to Sacramento the
following day. Criollo’s hosts included Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action
Network and Avaaz.org.
Watson did not answer when the group pressed the buzzer to his gated
home, according to Han Shan, coordinator of Amazon Watch’s Cleanup
Ecuador campaign. Shan noted that Criollo did read his message into
Watson’s speaker at the gate, and then left a copy of a petition signed
by 325,000 people from around the world, asking Chevron to clean up the
affected area.
The event March 3 however, entitled “From Ecuador to California:
California’s largest corporation, one of the world’s worst oil related
disasters, and what California’s legislators can do” was more successful
according to Brianna Cayo Cotter of RAN.
The reception with senators, Assembly members, and their staff included
Democratic California Sens. Fran Pavley and Loni Hancocki, as well as
Assemblyman Manny Perez, Assemblyman Paul Fong, Assemblyman Ira Ruskin
and Assemblyman Jared Huffman.
“These key leaders from both the environmental and Latino caucuses not
only listened to Emergildo’s story, but spoke of their desire to support
the people of Ecuador who are suffering and dying because of Chevron’s
operations,” Cayo Cotter said in a press release.
Huffman spoke of the need “to remedy a very serious environmental and
human tragedy.”
Cayo Cotter wrote that Criollo “… told the lawmakers about how he was
only 6 years old when Chevron (then Texaco) began oil drilling in his
community. He spoke of how his family was forced to relocate because of
the contamination. About how he had to part centimeters of oil off of
the river to drink the water. About how he has lost two sons and nursed
a wife through uterine cancer because of the contamination. His family
drank, bathed, and fished in water that was poisoned by oil dumping.”
At the end of his presentation Criollo asked all of the Assembly members
and senators for their help and invited them to visit his home and “see
for themselves the devastation Chevron’s behavior has caused.”
Hancock, from the Contra Costa district where Chevron is headquartered,
said she “would like to come and visit. This is an international issue
and an issue here as well.”
Other lawmakers expressed interest in supporting the cleanup effort,
according to Cayo Cotter.
Soon after the Sacramento reception Criollo returned to Ecuador, where,
he noted that his people were also receiving help from small local
indigenous organizations.
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