Chevron in Ecuador

The archive of the Clean Up Ecuador campaign website


Affected Peoples from Ecuador and Richmond Announce Growing Worldwide Coalition to Confront Chevron at Annual Shareholder Meeting

Company management to be confronted with multiple resolutions on corporate accountability, climate change, political funding and environmental protection

Amazon Watch

Amazon Watch
22 May 2015 - FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Karen Hinton at +1.703.798.3109


Interviews available upon request

WHAT: A growing coalition of communities affected by Chevron’s operations and environmental organizations will announce plans to return to Chevron’s Annual Shareholders Meeting to denounce the company’s pattern of human rights abuses, environmental destruction, and attacks on democracy. Hundreds of thousands of signatures will be delivered to Chevron’s doorstep at the Wednesday meeting demanding change in the company’s policies and practices around world.

WHO:
Humberto Piaguaje, Secoya Indigenous Leader, Ecuador
Lipo Chanthanasak, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Richmond
Gayle McLaughlin, City Council Member, Richmond
Andres Soto, Communities for a Better Environment, Richmond
Michelle Chan, Friends of the Earth
Paul Paz y Miño, Amazon Watch
Laura Livoti, Justice In Nigeria Now
Paddy Crumlin, International Transport Workers Federation, Australia
Linda Cavato, 350.org

True Cost of Chevron Network: Amazon Watch, Sierra Club, Asian Pacific Environmental Network, Richmond Progressive Alliance, Justice in Nigeria Now, Friends of the Earth, Sunflower Alliance, SumofUs.org, Communities for a Better Environment, Pachamama Alliance, Center for Environmental Health, Earthworks, Rainforest Action Network, Greenaction, Global Exchange, 350 Bay Area, Corporate Accountability International...

WHERE: Sierra Club Offices, 85 2nd St #2, San Francisco, CA 94105

WHEN: Tuesday, May 26th at 11:00 am PDT

BROADCAST LIVE AT: truecostofchevron.com/live

CONFERENCE CALL: +1.805.399.1000 Access code: 298201


San Francisco, CA – On May 26th, at the headquarters of the Sierra Club, representatives of communities affected by Chevron environmental destruction and disregard for human rights will announce plans to return to Chevron’s Annual Shareholders Meeting the following morning in San Ramon, CA. Speakers are from a growing network of organizations confronting Chevron on its corporate misdeeds and disregard for the environment and human rights. Two speakers come directly from communities suffering negative health impacts from Chevron’s pollution. Other organizations will speak in support of multiple shareholder resolutions regarding the environment, climate change and corporate accountability. Over 200,000 petition signatures calling for Chevron to pay the $9.5 Ecuadorian judgment against it will be delivered.

Chevron's corporate actions are contrary to a healthy planet, healthy communities and a just world. We stand opposed to Chevron's choices to pollute our communities, our land, and our water, to use their toxic influence to buy political power, fuel climate disruption, abuse the justice system and attack its critics and victims of its contamination. We support shareholders calling for a change in Chevron’s culture of deception, corruption and destruction.

SPEAKER BIOS:
Humberto PiaguajeHumberto Piaguaje is a historic leader of the Secoya people of Ecuador's northern Amazon rainforest. Prior to Texaco's arrival in the region, the Secoya people numbered in the thousands. But the Secoya ancestral land surrounds the Aguarico River, one of Texaco’s prime dumping grounds. Billions of gallons of a toxic brew of produced waters, drilling muds, and pure crude were dumped into the Aguarico and its tributaries. Because of this contamination, and resulting forest loss, displacement, and culture degradation, the total Secoya population is now approximately 350. Piaguaje is the Coordinator and official spokesperson of the Union of Affected Communities (Union de Afectados por la Petrolera Texaco-UDAPT), the organization that represents the 30,000 affected people who brought the Aguinda v. Chevron litigation. He is a teacher by profession, and lives in Lago Agrio, Ecuador.

Lipo ChanthanasakLipo Chanthanasak, from Northern Laos, has proudly served as a leader with the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) for over a decade, working to reduce carbon pollution and ensure environmental justice. In 20?? he received the White House Champions of Change award for environmental justice. At sixteen years old, Lipo left school to support his family by farming, hunting, and fishing. The Vietnam War led him to join a Guerrilla Unit of American forces. After fighting alongside Americans, Lipo and his family immigrated to Richmond, California. Fleeing persecution, Lipo came here as a refugee and was greeted with opportunity but also faced some challenges. His community was exposed to high levels of pollution and many suffer respiratory illnesses. Lipo led advocacy efforts to curb this pollution. He joined APEN to champion local renewable energy and good paying clean energy jobs.

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