On May 9, as activists from Ecuador and the United States denounced to
600 Texaco shareholders the company's proposed remediation settlement
with the Ecuadorian government as criminally insufficient, Ecuadorian
officials in Quito went forward and signed t he agreement. This
settlement, which outlines Texaco's measures to restore environmental
damages caused by its twenty-six years of operation in the Ecuadorian
Amazon, has been widely rejected by local indigenous, farmer and
environmental groups, chargin g that it addresses only a small portion
of Texaco's extensive impacts in the region.
In recent days, umbrella citizen groups, such as the Confederation of
Indigenous Nationalities of the Ecuadorian Amazon (CONFENAIE) and Amazon
Defense Front have published letters in Ecuador's major newspapers,
emphatically denouncing the settlement terms . They charge that Texaco
and the Ecuadorian government, who worked as an oil consortium until
1992, have failed to include in the settlement the concerns of the very
populations affected by the oil operations. As a result, local leaders
explain, the pl anned clean-up will not effectively remedy the
profoundly negative impacts of Texaco's operations, which include
deforestation of more than two million acres of rainforest, displacement
of indigenous communities, and extensive water pollution which has cr
eated a regional health crisis.
While the details of the settlement have not been completely disclosed,
leaders confirm that only some oil areas are considered under the
agreement. Texaco's agreement does not include the majority of the
wells and waste pits in the company's former conc ession area.
Ecuadorian indigenous and environmental leaders have made a strong
statement to Texaco and the Ecuadorian government, making known that
this "partial solution" is unacceptable, and that the international
fight to hold Texaco fully responsible for the dama ges will continue.
"This is not a solution," explains Paulina Garzon of Quito-based Accion
Ecologica. "This is Texaco trying to quickly wash its hands of the
destruction it caused during over a quarter of a century. The
Ecuadorian people will not stand
for it."
In addition, some thirty human rights and environmental organizations
belong to the Washington-based Coalition in Support of Amazonian Peoples
and Their Environment have also denounced the settlement, pledging to
continue their work with the Ecuadorian or ganizations in their fight
against Texaco.
Addresses and faxes:
President Sixto Duran Ballen
Casa Presidencial
Garcia Moreno 1043
Quito, Ecuador
Alfred C. de Crane Jr., Chairman and CEO
Texaco, Inc.
2000 Westchester Ave.
White Plains, NY 10650