Quito, Dec. 10 - Amazonian organizations today consider unjust the ruling by which Ecuador must pay Chevron $220 million in compensation. Chevron has been accused of causing one of the worst environmental disasters in the region.
The Union of People Affected by Texaco’s Oil Operations (UDAPT) held a press conference on Wednesday and reported that it requested the seizure of the funds that the government intends to allocate to comply with the arbitration ruling.
The group stated that, after decades of litigation, this decision "re-victimizes" the indigenous and peasant populations who continue to live with oil contamination in the Ecuadorian Amazon.
The conflict dates back to Texaco’s operations, later absorbed by Chevron, between 1964 and 1992 in the Amazonian provinces of Sucumbíos and Orellana.
According to data presented by those affected, the company dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into rivers and soils and left hundreds of crude oil pits unremediated, affecting the health and economy of thousands of inhabitants.
In 2011, a court in Lago Agrio ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion in environmental reparations.
The multinational rejected the decision, denounced fraud in the process, and sought international arbitration.
In 2018, a court in The Hague ruled in favor of the oil company and held the Ecuadorian state responsible for "denial of justice," ordering it to neutralize the national sentence and pay compensation.
The Ecuadorian Attorney General's Office reported that the recent amount of $220 million represents a 93.4 percent reduction from the $3.35 billion claimed by Chevron and that the arbitration process continues in its fourth phase to determine arbitration costs.
However, for those affected, this reduction does not lessen the severity of the precedent: Ecuador would be paying a company that, according to their claims, caused an environmental crime that remains unrepaired.
Legislator Verónica Iñiguez-Gallardo, from the Citizen Revolution movement, accused the government of allowing international arbitrations to "override Ecuadorian justice" and described the system as a "legalized looting" that favors transnational corporations to the detriment of the country's sovereignty.
According to the assembly member, Ecuador has paid hundreds of millions of dollars to transnational companies (Oxy, Perenco, RSEA, etc.), funds that should have gone to education and health.
"Arbitration is used as a 'chill out' mechanism, where the threat of a multimillion-dollar award discourages the state from regulating or sanctioning corporations," Iñiguez-Gallardo said.
Additionally, the legislator recalled how President Daniel Noboa has sought to amend the Constitution to allow this mechanism, which in Chevron's case was activated before the current ban.
