Crude awakening in Ecuador.

Delfin Payaguajo of the Sekoya tribe in the Amazon rainforest in Ecuador says his family's health and traditional way of life have been ruined by Texaco. The U.S. oil giant has pumped a billion barrels of crude oil out of the Ecuadoran rainforest--one of the world's most bilogically diverse--and left behind an ecological horror show.

Payaguajo and others are suing Texaco for $1.5 billion in damages, and to force the oil giant to clean up the pollution. From the early 1970s to 1990, Texaco pumped 200,000 barrels of oil a day from over 400 drilling sites in teh rainforest. In the process, say activists, Texaco showed little concern for the environment or the health of the people who live there. Payaguajo charges that Texaco contaminated the water supply with crude oil. The local river, the Aguarico, was so poisoned by crude oil that no one can fish there now, and villagers must drink and bathe with rainwater.

Because of their actions, Texaco is the target of an international consumer boycott headed by the San Francisco-based Rainforest Action Network. Boycott organizer, Glen Switkes, hopes consumers will cut up their credit cards and send them to Texaco's corporate headquarters in White Plains, New York. Rainforest activists are also planning protests at Texaco service stations.

The outside world first learned about Texaco's actions in Ecuador with the 1990 publication of Amazon Crude, by Judith Kimerling. The book has been praised as the Silent Spring of Ecuador. Kimerling, a lawyer who prosecuted the infamous Love Canal case, paints a grim picture of a world-class ecological disaster, pointing out that Texaco spilled significantly more oil in Ecuador than the Exxon Valdez spilled in Prince William Sound, Alaska in 1989.

A lawsuit, filed by Philadelphia lawyer Joseph Kohn, charges that Texaco "acted with callous disregard for the health, well-being and safety of the plaintiffs." The complaint also says that Texaco failed to abide by industry standards and follow its own guidelines. For most of its two decades-plus operation, Texaco had no environmental oversight, according to Kimerling.

These charges are "just not true," says David Dickson, a Texaco spokesperson. Corporate public relation head Peter Dowd says the boycott is just a fundraising ploy by the Rainforest Action Network. In addition, says Texaco, the matter should only be decided by Ecuadorians since environmentalists "represent an inappropriate intervention in the internal affairs of the people of Ecuador and their government." But in April 1994, federal district judge Vincent Broderick made a preliminary ruling that the lawsuit can move forward if the plaintiffs proved that the decision to pollute the rainforest was made in the White Plains headquarters. Contact: Rainforest Action Network, 450 Sansome Street, Suite 700, San Francisco, CA 94111/[phone]; Texaco, 2000 Westchester Avenue, White Plains, NY 10604/[phone].