[Also Posted to ACTIV-L and misc.activism.progressive (by Somebody Else)]
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=> From: nyt%nyxfer@igc.apc.org
=> Subject: Texaco Poisons Ecuador
Via The NY Transfer News Service * All the News that Doesn't Fit
TEXACO POISONS ECUADORANS
By Charles Tucker
A continuous, long-term oil spill in the Amazon forest of
Ecuador is destroying the forest and the life system it
supports there.
Texaco has extracted more than a billion barrels of oil
in 25 years of pumping in the jungle. But the U.S.-based
multi-national corporate giant has ignored the effects on
the surrounding communities and the delicate ecosystem of
the region. Ecologist Judith Kimerling made this assertion
in a report issued by a group called SALVAM (Save the Amazon).
"Indigenous communities in the region have lost their
livelihood: there are no animals to hunt, the rivers are dead
and lack fish, and they can't plant because the land is now
sterile. Residents of the area suffer headaches, lung, skin
and intestinal diseases, and birth defects," Kimerling reported.
There have been continuous minor and major oil spills over
hundreds of miles of oil pipeline through the region, according
to the report. In 1989 one such accident dumped 294,000 gallons
of oil into the Napo River.
As a result 31 Quechua communities in the area lost their crops.
But they received no aid or indemnification whatever.
"Just in the past two months there have been three oil spills at
Texaco facilities," the report continued. The biggest affected
21 communities. "The cause of the spill was human error, but
[it] was worsened by the lack of a containment plan to limit
and clean up the spill to the extent possible, and aid those
affected."
A "firm" agreement between Texaco and the Ecuadoran government
to protect the people's right to a contaminant-free environment
has been completely ignored. The problem affects not only
Ecuador, but all humanity, the report emphasized.
(Copyright Workers World Service: Permission to reprint granted
if source is cited. For more info contact Workers World, 46
W. 21 St., New York, NY 10010; email: ww%nyxfer@igc.apc.org;
"workers" on PeaceNet; on Internet: "workers@mcimail.com".)