Chevron in Ecuador

The archive of the Clean Up Ecuador campaign website


News and Multimedia from 2005

Oil and Cancer in Ecuador

Ecuadoran Villagers Believe High Rates of Cancer Are Tied to Petroleum Pollution, A Contention that Chevron Disputes
11 December 2005 | San Francisco Chronicle

The story goes back to 1967, when Texaco, a U.S. oil company that now is part of Chevron, discovered oil in northeastern Ecuador. Between 1971 and 1992 Texaco, in partnership with state-owned PetroEcuador, extracted more than 1.5 billion barrels of oil from this area.     Read more...

United Nations Demands Ecuador Protect Leaders of Lawsuit Against Chevron

Human Rights Official Calls for Rule of Law and Details of Police Probe
8 December 2005 | Amazon Watch

The United Nations has called on the Ecuadorian government to guarantee the safety of lawyers and leaders of a landmark environmental lawsuit against Chevron, following a series of threats and acts of harassment in recent weeks.     Read more...

UN Demands Harassment Explanation from Ecuador

Defense Minister Cancels Appearance before Legislators
7 December 2005 | Amazon Defense Coalition

The United Nations Secretary General's Special Representative on Human Rights Defenders has sent a letter to Ecuador's Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting details of the investigation into the death threats and kidnap attempts against lawyers and leaders of a landmark environmental lawsuit against Chevron.     Read more...

Chevron Shareholders Increase Pressure Over Oil Contamination In Ecuador Rainforest

Three Resolutions Filed For 2006 Shareholder Meeting Highlighting Chevron's "Rainforest Chernobyl"
5 December 2005 | Amazon Watch

Chevron's Ecuador environmental disaster, considered by experts to be the worst oil-related ecological problem on the planet and currently the subject of a high-stakes law suit estimated to cost the company upwards of $6 billion, will be high on the agenda of the company's 2006 annual shareholder meeting with the filing of three new resolutions asking Chevron's management to take various steps to protect human rights, the environment and shareholder interests.     Read more...

Chevron Lobbying Interferes with Ecuador Lawsuit, Warn Rainforest Leaders

30 November 2005 | Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch is calling on Representative Bill Thomas (R-Calif.), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, to respond to a letter from Ecuadorian rainforest leaders urging Congress to resist Chevron's lobbying to kill a $6 billion environmental lawsuit.     Read more...

Chevron Shareholders Submit Resolution Addressing Ecuadorian Contamination Controversy

30 November 2005 | Trillium Asset Management & Amnesty International

For the third year in a row, Chevron Corporation shareholders have submitted a resolution on Texaco's toxic legacy in Ecuador. This year, the resolution calls on the company to report the total costs relating in any way to the health and environmental consequences of hydrocarbon exposures and Chevron's remediation of Texaco drilling sites in Ecuador.     Read more...

Plaintiffs Blast Chevron Lobbying

28 November 2005 | Roll Call

A group of plaintiffs who are suing Chevron Corp. in an Ecuadorean court have taken their cause to Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.).     Read more...

Amazon Defense Coalition Letter to Members of U.S. Congress

22 November 2005

This letter to the members of the House Ways & Means Committee and other members of the House of Representatives expresses concern over Chevron's improper lobbying efforts with regard to the Andean Free Trade Agreement, and urges the House to reject Chevron's attempt to force Ecuador's hand through U.S. pressure.     Read more...

Rainforest Indians Gain Key Support After Threats and Robbery

Eleven Human Rights Groups Call On Ecuador President Alfredo Palacio To Protect Integrity of Case
Chevron CEO O’Reilly Still Silent

21 November 2005 | Amazon Defense Coalition

Eleven prominent Ecuadorian human rights organizations are calling on Ecuador President Alfredo Palacio to defend the integrity of the historic environmental lawsuit against Chevron in that country's rainforest after a series of threats and an attempted kidnapping of the 9-year-old daughter of one of the leaders of affected communities.     Read more...

Head of Texaco in Ecuador Avoids Public Debate about Famous Legal Case

Rodrigo Pérez Pallares Behaves Like an Ostrich
18 November 2005 | Amazon Defense Coalition

The head of the transnational, Texaco, in Ecuador, continues avoiding public debates about the historic Texaco case. This week, at Quito's University of San Francisco, Rodrigo Pérez Pallares, who had been invited to come and talk by a group of students, cancelled his presentation at the last minute, offering a strange explanation.     Read more...

UN Human Rights Officials Demand Ecuador Protect Plaintiffs in Chevron Lawsuit

17 November 2005

This 2005 letter from human rights officials at the UN to Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Relations expressed concern over a pattern of harassment and serious threats directed at plaintiffs' legal team in the case against Chevron. The letter uged Ecuador's government to take necessary steps to protect the human rights of the targets of this campaign of intimidation.     Read more...

Ecuador Plaintiffs Allege Threat

10 November 2005 | Oil Daily

Threats have been made against the Ecuadorian leaders of an environmental lawsuit against Chevron and an international human rights commission should step in to help, says a petition filed Tuesday.     Read more...

"Crude Reflections" Comes to San Francisco

Photo Exhibit Documents Chevron's Toxic Devastation of Ecuadorian Amazon
10 November 2005 | Amazon Watch

Crude Reflections: ChevronTexaco's Rainforest Legacy, a photo exhibit documenting the human and environmental impacts of Chevron's devastating toxic contamination of the Ecuadorian Amazon, will open at San Francisco City Hall on November 14.     Read more...

Threats Alleged in Ecuador Environmental Lawsuit against Chevron

8 November 2005 | Associated Press

Threats have been made against the Ecuadorean leaders of an environmental lawsuit against Chevron Corp., and an international human rights commission should step in to help, says a petition filed Tuesday.     Read more...

Press Release on the Legal Petition

8 November 2005 | Amazon Watch

Ecuador leaders in Chevron lawsuit say their lives are in danger. Protection sought from death threat and break-in in $6 billion oil case.     Read more...

Petition to Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

In November 2005, Amazon Watch and Ecuadorian leaders from the affected communities filed a legal petition with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, part of the Organization of American States. The petition sought protection for human rights leaders involved in the case against Chevron in Ecuador, following death threats and a break-in.     Read more...

Chevron Winners Urged to Return Conservation Cash

Don't Let Chevron Dodge Rainforest Abuses, Warns Amazon Watch
3 November 2005 | Amazon Watch

Chevron's Ecuador problem came back to haunt it again today as the six recipients of the company's "conservation" awards received a letter from an environmental group asking them to return their cash prizes to the oil giant.     Read more...

Chevron Rejects Liability Claim

31 October 2005

US supermajor Chevron has failed to disclose a potential multibillion dollar liability over alleged environmental contamination in Ecuador's Amazon jungle, according to the environmental organization AmazonWatch.     Read more...

Chevron's 'Conservation' Awards: Greenwashing Oil Disaster Away

28 October 2005 | Amazon Watch

Chevron (formerly Texaco) will host its 51st Annual Conservation Awards tonight. Aimed at burnishing the corporation's environmental credentials, the ceremony will avoid any mention of the Ecuadorian Amazon.     Read more...

Chevron Fails to Live Up to Corporate Responsibility Rhetoric

Amazon Watch Letter to Chevron CEO
28 October 2005 | Amazon Watch

This 2005 letter to Chevron CEO David O'Reilly urges him to commit his company to a full clean-up of its toxic legacy in Ecuador, thus living up to Chevron's high-minded rhetoric about corporate responsibility and concern for the environment.     Read more...

Chevron "Cover-Up" Exposed on the Eve of its Earnings Release

In Letter to Company, Amazon Watch Says Chevron Hiding Massive Liability in Ecuador
28 October 2005

Chevron was accused today of failing to disclose a potential multi-billion dollar liability in a growing scandal that raises major issues of corporate governance at the California-based oil giant.     Read more...

Chevron’s Massive Liability

Amazon Watch Letter to Chevron Lawyer
25 October 2005 | Amazon Watch

This 2005 letter to Chevron Vice President and General Counsel Edward B. Scott criticizes the company's position on the court case in Ecuador for denying overwhelming evidence of Chevron's liability as well as ignoring many of the key issues at stake.     Read more...

Rain Forest Jekyll and Hyde?

20 October 2005 | New York Times

On Oct. 28, during a gala ceremony at its headquarters in San Ramon, Calif., the company, which until May was known as ChevronTexaco, will honor the latest recipients of the annual Chevron Conservation Awards. Meanwhile, Chevron's lawyers are in Ecuador defending the company against charges that it contributed to one of the worst environmental disasters on the planet.     Read more...

Military Report on Cancellation of Guanta Inspection

20 October 2005

A judicial inspection at the Guanta petroleum separation station was cancelled in October 2005, on account of a supposed plan by local Cofán indigenous people to disrupt the inspection and take Chevron personnel hostage. In reality, the one page document alleging the existence of such a security threat seems to have been fabricated by military officials on behalf of Chevron, as there is no credible evidence that such a plan ever existed. This military report reveals the suspicious circumstances under which the Guanta inspection was cancelled.     Read more...

Amazon Indians say Texaco Left Damage

20 October 2005 | Associated Press

About 50 Cofan Indians, some holding handkerchiefs over their faces to fend off an acrid chemical stench, gathered around two contaminated open pits they say were left behind and never adequately cleaned up by the former Texaco Corp.     Read more...

Chevron Lawyers Fail to Show for Ecuador Court Date with Indians

In Secret Police Report, Chevron Claimed To Judge That Indians Whose Land The Company Contaminated Want To Kidnap Them
19 October 2005 | Amazon Watch

n last-minute maneuvering yesterday that had the apparent odor of corruption, Chevron lawyers managed to convince the Ecuador judge presiding over the environmental "trial of the century" to cancel a long-planned judicial site visit to the territory of a near-extinct indigenous tribe where several tribe members planned to testify against the company.     Read more...

100 Percent of Inspected Well Sites Show Contamination

Affected Communities Claim Chevron Dumped 30 Times More Oil than Exxon Valdez onto Lands
18 October 2005 | Amazon Watch

The latest results from Chevron's historic rainforest trial in Ecuador show the oil giant continues to lose ground to a group of indigenous tribes and jungle communities who have brought the first-ever environmental case against an American company in a rainforest court.     Read more...

Fighting for Survival, Rainforest Indians To Testify Against Chevron

With $6 Billion Liability, Chevron To Be Confronted By Leaders of Communities It Displaced Years Ago
30 Times More Crude Dumped Than Exxon Valdez

12 October 2005

Several survivors of Ecuador's Cofan indigenous group, forced off their ancestral lands by the oil operations of Texaco (now Chevron), are preparing to testify in the historic trial against the oil giant over an estimated $6 billion in environmental damages.     Read more...

Texaco Hid Contamination at Shushufindi

23 September 2005 | Amazon Defense Coalition

The month of September concluded with the judicial inspection of the central production station of Shushufindi, located a few kilometers from the municipality of Shushufindi in the province of Sucumbios.     Read more...

August 2005 Press Kit on Judicial Inspection Results

Scientific Results in Ecuador Trial Point to a Billion-Dollar Liability for Chevron
24 August 2005 | Amazon Watch / Amazon Defense Coalition

The included tables compare the results of soil and water samples taken by the plaintiffs and by Chevron, revealing that even Chevron's own samples reveal strong evidence of contamination above Ecuadorian norms. As early as 2005, Chevron was proving the case against itself.     Read more...

The Jivaro Versus the Oil Industry

8 August 2005 | L'Expresse

In the heart of the Ecuadorian forest, the Achuar Indians are engaged in a ferocious fight against powerful oil companies drawn by the black gold. It is a David and Goliath combat in this Latin American country riddled with corruption.     Read more...

Letter From Ecuador

1 August 2005 | The Nation

When Renee Arevalo purchased a small plot of land just off the main road to Shushufindi several years ago, it seemed like a great opportunity. A rectangular block of freshly plowed dirt off the well-traveled route toward one of Ecuador's oldest oilfields, the sizable lot looked like the perfect spot to build a small house for his family that would double as a tire repair shop. But then the rains came.     Read more...

Protestors Gather Against Chevron At UN60

24 June 2005 | Amazon Watch

On Sunday, June 26, pro-UN demonstrators will gather in San Francisco, California outside the closing luncheon celebrating the 60th anniversary of the UN. The demonstrators will be protesting the participation of Chevron, the lead sponsor of the event, because of its abysmal human rights and environmental record in several countries.     Read more...

Crude Reflections Photo Exhibit Opening Night

Crude Reflections Photo Exhibit Opening Night

June 2005

The photo exhibit Crude Reflections: ChevronTexaco's Rainforest Legacy, documenting the human and environmental impact of what experts believe is the worst oil-related environmental disaster on the planet, offers the public its first up close look at the human impact of ChevronTexaco's oil pollution in Ecuador's rainforest region, and the Amazonian communities' efforts to restore the health of their families and land.     Read more...

Texaco Sued Over Pollution - Oil Waste Dumped

22 May 2005 | Newsday

Texaco's legacy in the Amazon oozes from an oil pit near Ruperto Narvaez's shack like pus from a sore.     Read more...

Pensions up Pressure Over Ecuador Spill

Funds Call on ChevronTexaco to Resolve $6bn Rainforest Action
29 April 2005 | Upstreamonline

ChevronTexaco is coming under mounting pressure to resolve its $6 billion Ecuador rainforest trial, which escalated significantly this week when leaders representing the three largest public pension funds in the US calledon the company to take action to settle the dispute.     Read more...

Protesters Dog ChevronTexaco Annual Meeting

About 100 Demonstrators Show up at San Ramon Shareholder Gathering
28 April 2005 | Oakland Tribune

About 100 protesters gathered outside ChevronTexaco headquarters in San Ramon on Wednesday to demonstrate against the oil giant.     Read more...

CEO O'Reilly Reports Record Profits, Shuts Off Microphone On Ecuadorians

After Traveling Days From Rainforest, Carmen Perez Finds Out She Can't Speak
27 April 2005

Perhaps angered by a call by large shareholders that the Ecuador situation be independently reviewed by the Board of Directors, ChevronTexaco CEO David O'Reilly Wednesday reported record oil profits and then promptly shut down the microphone on a prominent Ecuadorian rainforest leader before she had a chance to speak at the company's annual meeting about oil contamination caused by Texaco in her homeland.     Read more...

CEO O'Reilly Reports Record Profits, Shuts Off Microphone On Ecuadorians

After Traveling Days From Rainforest, Carmen Perez Finds Out She Can't Speak
27 April 2005

Perhaps angered by a call by large shareholders that the Ecuador situation be independently reviewed by the Board of Directors, ChevronTexaco CEO David O'Reilly Wednesday reported record oil profits and then promptly shut down the microphone on a prominent Ecuadorian rainforest leader before she had a chance to speak at the company's annual meeting about oil contamination caused by Texaco in her homeland.     Read more...

Amazon Pollution: Victims of 'Toxico'

27 April 2005 | The Independent

Environmentalists estimate around 2.5 million acres of rainforest were compromised or destroyed in Texaco's search for oil in Ecuador. It is a disaster that has left the jungle ravaged and its people dying of cancer.      Read more...

April 26: Statement from the California State Controller Steve Westly

26 April 2005

Statement for Tuesday, April 26, 2005 Press Conference ChevronTexaco Shareholders Criticize Management: Destruction from the Arctic to the Ecuadorian Amazon is Bad for Business and Bad for the Environment     Read more...

Shareholders Call for Disclosure of Liabilities

26 April 2005 | Trillium Asset Management, Amnesty International & California State Controller

ChevronTexaco Investors on eve shareholder meeting: Damage to Ecuadorian Amazon is bad for business as well as environment. Shareholders call for full disclosure of environmental and human rights liabilities. Shareholder resolution proponents hold 20 million shres worth over $1 billion.     Read more...

Chevron Shareholders Step Up Pressure On Management Over Ecuador

Shareholder resolution proponents hold 20 million shares worth over $1 billion
26 April 2005 | Amazon Watch

At a press conference today in San Francisco on the eve of ChevronTexaco's annual shareholder meeting in San Ramon, representatives from the California state pension funds, social investment firms, and environmental and human rights organizations expressed concerns regarding ChevronTexaco's activities in sensitive areas like the Ecuadorian Amazon jungle.     Read more...

2005 Amazon Watch Letter to Chevron CEO

Regarding Conflicts of Interest and Misinformation in Ecuador Case
26 April 2005

Amazon Watch sent this letter to Chevron CEO David O'Reilly urging him to address Chevron's irresponsible handling of the case in Ecuador. Signs of this irresponsibility include a pattern of false and misleading statements by company representatives, and a major conflict of interest involving Chevron lawyer and vice president Ricardo Reis Veiga.     Read more...

Amazon Watch Letter to Chevron CEO Regarding Conflicts of Interest and Misinformation in Ecuador Case

26 April 2005 | Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch sent this letter to Chevron CEO David O'Reilly urging him to address Chevron's irresponsible handling of the case in Ecuador. Signs of this irresponsibility include a pattern of false and misleading statements by company representatives, and a major conflict of interest involving Chevron lawyer and vice president Ricardo Reis Veiga.     Read more...

2005 Shareholder Resolution to ChevronTexaco

25 April 2005 | Trillium Asset Management

Between 1972 and 1992, Texaco and Petroecuador extracted over 1.4 billion barrels of oil from the Ecuadorian Amazon. As operator, Texaco designed, built and managed all exploration, extraction and transportation facilities.     Read more...

Crude Reflections Photo Exhibit Opens in San Ramon

Exhibit Captures Human Impact of ChevronTexaco's "Rainforest Chernobyl" in Ecuador
Series of 50 Photos Opens National Tour Of Several Cities Near Company Headquarters On Eve Of Shareholder Meeting

25 April 2005 | Amazon Watch

The photo exhibit Crude Reflections: ChevronTexaco's Rainforest Legacy, documenting the human and environmental impact of what experts believe is the worst oil-related environmental disaster on the planet, opens today just miles from ChevronTexaco's world headquarters in San Ramon.     Read more...

Crude Reflections

Crude Reflections

April 2005

View photos by San Francisco Bay Area photographers Lou Dematteis and Kayana Szymczak, who traveled to Ecuador to document the physical and emotional reality of those affected by pollution and their struggle for justice.     Read more...

Cancer Study in Village of San Carlos

Occupational Environmental Medicine

This report, published in Occupational Environmental Medicine by M San Sebastián, B Armstrong, J A Córdoba and C Stephens, highlights the high rate of cancer suffered by the Ecuadorian rainforest community of San Carlos, linking this to toxins found in local drinking water that result from oil contamination.     Read more...

Exhibit Targets Oil Giant Tied to Rain Forest Wells

14 April 2005 | Contra Costa Times

A 1993 lawsuit by Ecuadorian Indians charging the ChevronTexaco subsidiary polluted their homelands in the rain forest was dismissed in the United States after the company agreed to allow a trial to proceed in Ecuador. That trial has been stalled by upheaval in the Ecuadorian judicial system.     Read more...

Ecuadorian Attorney General Tells ChevronTexaco Shareholders Remediation Agreement May Be Invalid

12 April 2005 | SocialFunds.com

The questionable validity of the remediation agreement indemnifying ChevronTexaco could carry implications for the lawsuit and beyond (part three of a multipart article).     Read more...

Asphalt Jungle: Did Oil Drilling by Texaco Create Environmental and Social Harm in Ecuador?

11 April 2005 | SocialFunds.com

Both ChevronTexaco and lawsuit plaintiffs are finding evidence of contamination during judicial site inspections: the question is, does it pose human health or environmental risks? (part two of a multi-part article.)      Read more...

Shareholder Call for Chevron to Address Ecuador Abuses

7 April 2005 | Trillium Asset Management, New York State Comptroller, Amnesty International & Sisters of Mercy

A new coalition of Chevron Texaco shareholders gather support for resolution addressing ecuadorian contamination controversy.     Read more...

Scientists Denounce Tactics of Texaco and Its Academic Consultants in Ecuadorean Oil Dispute

6 April 2005 | The Chronicle of Higher Education

Fifty scientists have sent a letter to a journal of environmental and occupational health to decry the behavior of other researchers who have acted as consultants to ChevronTexaco in a dispute over oil drilling in Ecuador.     Read more...

Letter Arguing that Chevron Misleads About Health Impacts

April 2005

Fifty eminent scientists and doctors from across Latin America, North America and Europe write to the International Journal of Occupational and Environmental Health to warn that Chevron's paid experts may mislead about the health impacts of the oil giant's operations in Ecuador.     Read more...

ChevronTexaco Resorts to Blackmail in Attempting to Win Historical Lawsuit in the Amazon

17 March 2005 | Amazon Watch

With this letter, ChevronTexaco requested that President Bush not re-certify Ecuador's most favored nation status this year.     Read more...

ChevronTexaco on the Defensive

Suit in Ecuador Alleges Drilling by Texaco Caused Environmental Damage in Amazon
3 March 2005 | San Francisco Chronicle

When Chevron merged with Texaco in 2001, it inherited a simmering environmental dispute in Ecuador that could cost the company billions.     Read more...

Sacha-10 (Spanish)

The judicial inspections found that the waste pits next to this well, built by Texaco in 1971, contained high levels of toxins well over Ecuadorian norms. Significantly, these pits were subjected to Texaco's remediation in the mid 1990s.      Read more...

Separation Station, Shushufindi Southeast (Spanish)

This is the first of Texaco's 18 separation stations to be inspected, and the results were extremely negative for the company. At each separation station, Texaco separated the water of formation from the marketable crude and simply dumped sludge into a large wetlands area, sometimes at the rate of millions of gallons per week. Some of the results from this particular inspection were as follows.     Read more...

Shushufindi-48 Inspection Results (Spanish)

This well was built by Texaco in 1974, and produced hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil and water of formation before being "remediated" by Texaco in the mid-1990s. The results of this inspection were as follows.     Read more...

Sacha-94 Inspection Results (Spanish)

Built in 1974, this is a well site that ChevronTexaco often shows to journalists as a model of its remediation. The company covered the pits surrounding this well with dirt without first removing the toxins; the sites appear harmless, as they are now covered with vegetation that hides the danger underneath. Results of these analyses from samples taken from two pits on this site are as follows.     Read more...

Sacha-53 Inspection Results (Spanish)

Built in 1974, this is a well site that ChevronTexaco often shows to journalists as a model of its remediation. The company covered the pits surrounding this well with dirt without first removing the toxins; the sites appear harmless, as they are now covered with vegetation that hides the danger underneath.     Read more...

March 2005 Summary of Early Evidence from Judicial Inspections

March 2005

ChevronTexaco's larger defense is that it remediated the pits and therefore is not responsible for further clean-up. This defense is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain in light of the evidence from the judicial inspections.     Read more...