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 the 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, charging 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
planned 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 created 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 concession 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 damages 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 organizations 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