Decade-Long Lobbying Campaign to Kill $19 Billion Judgment
New Report Examines Chevron’s Backroom Deals and Open Threats in Ecuador Lawsuit
22/05/2013
- Opinión
San Ramon, California – A new report issued by the Amazon Defense Coalition in the landmark environmental lawsuit between residents of Ecuador’s Amazon rain forest and the oil giant Chevron examines Chevron’s backroom deals and open threats during a multi-year lobbying campaign to kill a $19 billion judgment issued against Chevron by an Ecuadorian court in 2011.
The report, Backroom Deals and Open Threats: Chevron’s Lobbying Efforts on its $19 Billion Ecuador Judgment Revealed, documents Chevron’s strategic manoeuvres to avoid paying the legitimate court judgment by pressuring high-placed Ecuadorian and U.S. government officials to interfere, as well as lobbying the U.S. government to punish the Andean nation by revoking an important trade preference agreement that provides a viable alternative to drug trafficking by granting various Ecuadorian products duty-free status in the U.S.
“Chevron’s sweetheart deals and covert pressure amount to little more than extortion,” said Graham Erion, a coordinating attorney for the plaintiffs. “It’s clear Chevron has decided to do everything it possibly can to fight the rule of law by spending shareholders’ money on high-powered lobbyists to little avail.”
Despite Chevron’s extensive efforts, courts in Argentina have frozen Chevron’s assets and 40 percent of its revenues. A Brazilian enforcement action is pending and filings in other countries will come later this year. A provincial court in Canada recently acknowledged jurisdiction for the Ecuadorians but said Chevron subsidiaries were shielded. That ruling will be appealed.
Analyzed in the new report are multiple documented instances of political interference and Chevron’s attempts to use the Andean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA) to punish Ecuador, including:
· Chevron began in 2003 to lobby high level government officials in Ecuador, including the Attorney General and the Minister of Commerce, to try to get Ecuador to assume the liability for any judgment rendered against Chevron and effectively shut down the case.
· Chevron’s costly lobbyists backfired when, in 2009, Chevron’s tactics were assailed by roughly 30 Members of Congress who wrote multiple letters to the USTR protesting Chevron’s tactics.
At Chevron’s annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday, May 29, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), on behalf of its 1.6 million members, will file a shareholder resolution calling for the company to publish an annual report disclosing its lobbying practices. According to a supporting statement from AFSCME, Chevron spent approximately $22.6 million in 2010 and 2011 on direct federal lobbying in the U.S.; not including funds spent lobbying the Republic of Ecuador or lobbying through organizations such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
“Chevron is not doing its investors any favors by keeping them in the dark as it throws good money after bad,” said Sonia Kowal, Director of Socially Responsible Investing at Zevin Asset Management. “Shareholders deserve greater transparency and greater accountability. It's time for Chevron to find a way to stop the bleeding.”
“Chevron’s massive lobbying expenditures and the ongoing fight to avoid the Ecuador judgement will be elephants in the room at the Chevron shareholder meeting next week,” added Erion. “Rather than achieve any benefit to shareholders, Chevron is simply pouring money into a failed strategy.”
May 21 2013
Amazon Defense Coalition
CONTACT: Bill Hamilton
https://www.alainet.org/es/node/76224
Del mismo autor
Clasificado en
