Title: ENVIRONMENT-ECUADOR: Texaco Claims Bankruptcy in Amazon Case
QUITO, Jan 3 (IPS) -- The U.S. petroleum company, Texaco, is trying to avoid
paying for ecological destruction it caused in the Ecuadorean Amazon,
claiming it was bankrupt at the time the damage was done, a lawyer involved
in the case said.
That contradicts the company's earlier commitment - made in August - to pay
compensation for socio-economic problems these had caused.
''The company said it was bankrupt when the damages occured,'' Cristobal
Bonifaz, a lawyer for the indigenous people of Ecuador, told reporters. He
said Texaco's new position was outlined in papers presented to the local
courts.
Bonifaz said Texaco claimed the damage was done before the company declared
bankruptcy in 1988.
The company had signed a memorandum along with the Ecuadorean government on
Aug. 3 of this year to set up medical centres and greenhouses by way of
redressing some of the damage done by its operations, which lasted from 1964
to 1992.
Bonifaz described Texaco's attitude as contradictory. He said while arguing
about the difficulty in fulfilling its obligations, the company had reported
large incomes in 1993.
Indigenous communities and local ecological groups sued Texaco for one
billion dollars before a New York court when medical studies showed that
some 30,000 people had been affected by cancer and skin diseases caused by
unsafe petroleum extraction.
The indigenous people claim that the petroleum company knowingly caused
damages to the ecosystem and the population of the Ecuadorean Amazon.
They accused Texaco of using unsafe exploration and exploitation systems,
whereby water used in drilling was not reinjected, and large amounts of
contaminated water were dumped into Amazon rivers.
Texaco denied the charges, but to date, the court has rejected all
allegations and allowed attorneys for the plaintiffs to review internal
documentation from the U.S. company.
Bonifaz said Texaco was a classic example of ''a multinational that goes to
a country in need of development, extracts billions (of dollars) in profits
and then tries to manipulate the legal system to evade responsibility for
the environmental damages.''
Official studies show that in these 28 years, the company destroyed a
significant part of the habitat of the Ecuadorean Amazon and spilled 450,000
barrels of crude oil due to human or technical errors.
Petroleum is Ecuador's leading export product, with sales financing 50
percent of the fiscal budget. (END/IPS/trd-
Origin: Amsterdam/ENVIRONMENT-ECUADOR/
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