Although they were caught off guard in 1964, the inhabitants of the Oriente have organized and are fighting back. Under the banner of the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonía (Amazon Defense Coalition), the Ecuadorian victims of Texaco's toxic mess have filed a landmark class-action lawsuit against the company. The lawsuit, first filed in 1993 in New York, continues today against Chevron in a Lago Agrio courtroom.  Chevron inherited Texaco's toxic legacy when it bought the company in 2001. A milestone was reached in 2008, when a court-appointed independent expert recommended that Chevron be held liable for damages between $7 billion and $16.3 billion. That assessment of the damages was upped to $27 billion in November 2008, reflecting contamination, cancer deaths, and clean up costs previously unaccounted for.

The case is unprecedented. It marks the first time a U.S. company faces a judgment in a foreign court over environmental crimes, and experts are calling the damage the worst oil related contamination on the planet. A ruling against Chevron would have repercussions far beyond Ecuador. The oil industry and communities around the world are watching and waiting on the outcome. The verdict will either put multinational corporations on notice that they can and will be held accountable for environmental and human rights abuses anywhere in the world, or it will give them the green light to continue operating with business-as-usual impunity.

Amazon Watch works with the affected communities in the case to monitor the trial, keep news of the trial in the spotlight and pressure Chevron to do the right thing in Ecuador. The company has engaged in repeated attempts to subvert the judicial process, ranging from the use of deceptive sampling techniques in scientific studies of the contamination, to lobbying efforts in Washington to tie the renewal of Ecuador's trade privileges to its dismissal of the case. We have successfully applied a combination of shareholder activism, media pressure, and direct action to expose these efforts and keep the heat on Chevron's increasingly desperate management. However, we need continuing support to ensure that 30,000 Ecuadorian indigenous and campesino peoples can have their day in court against one of the world's largest corporations. Visit the Take Action section to learn how you can get involved in the fight for justice for the citizens of the Oriente!