Ecuador seeks U.S. Justice Dept. intervention in Texaco Oil Spill Case.NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 1997-- U.S. Embassy charged with applying pressure on behalf of Texaco A billion dollar class action suit against Texaco brought by Amazonian Indians of Ecuador takes a new turn Thursday when the country's attorney general, Leonidas Plaza Verduga, arrives in the U.S. seeking a meeting with Justice Dept. officials to ask them to intercede in the case. The government of Ecuador recently reversed its position on the landmark case landmark case Law & medicine A civil or, far less commonly, criminal action that has had an impact on a particular area of medicine. , Aguinda v. Texaco Inc., and filed papers with the U.S. District Court in White Plains, N.Y. to intervene on the side of the Ecuadorian plaintiffs. All have been examined by U.S. medical doctors, who say they suffer from pre-cancerous skin lesions Skin Lesions Definition A skin lesion is a superficial growth or patch of the skin that does not resemble the area surrounding it. Description Skin lesions can be grouped into two categories: primary and secondary. , lung ailments and other diseases caused by exposure to Texaco's oil pollution in the lush region known as the Oriente. Texaco denies the charges. "Texaco must be held accountable for its reckless oil drilling practices in the Ecuadorian Amazon," said Henry Dahl dahl n. 1. See pigeon pea. 2. or dal A thick creamy East Indian stew made with lentils or other legumes, onions, and various spices. , a Dallas attorney who is legal counsel to the government of Ecuador. "Ecuador is prepared to do all that is necessary to ensure that the people of the Amazon receive a fair opportunity to present their case against Texaco in a U.S. court." "If the courthouse doors are open to U.S. citizens in Ecuador, then the courthouse doors in the U.S. must be open to this case," added Dahl. U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno Janet Reno (born July 21, 1938) was the first and to date only female Attorney General of the United States (1993–2001). She was nominated by President Bill Clinton on February 11, 1993, and confirmed on March 11. telephoned her Ecuadorian counterpart, Mr. Plaza Verduga, on Jan. 16, following receipt of faxed letter from Verduga expressing outrage over a recent ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Jedd Rakoff. On Nov. 12, 1996 Judge Rakoff departed from the rulings of two prior federal judges and dismissed the suit, holding that Texaco could not be forced to clean up the devastation left behind by 20 years of gross environmental negligence. Within days of learning of the judge's ruling, Ecuador announced that it planned to intervene on behalf of the plaintiffs. The announcement came amidst charges that the U.S. embassy in Quito had threatened Ecuador's attorney general with dire consequences regarding future foreign investment. The Ecuadorian Indians' attorneys promptly filed a motion before Judge Rakoff for reconsideration of his ruling based on the new circumstances. On Dec. 23, 1996 the Ecuadorian government filed its papers seeking to intervene. Both motions are now pending before Judge Rakoff. This filing represents the first time a foreign government has sued a U.S. oil company in an American court over alleged environmental destruction in its homeland. The Amazonian plaintiffs, members of several different indigenous tribes, filed the unprecedented case against Texaco on Nov. 3, 1993, charging Texaco with ruining their rivers and land, causing widespread devastation to the rainforest environment, and creating a dramatically increased risk of cancer for tens of thousands of people. Plaintiffs' attorneys estimate damages, including massive clean-up costs, at over $1 billion. "Texaco's oil drilling in Ecuador has created a human and environmental catastrophe worse than the Exxon Valdez This article is about the tank vessel Exxon Valdez. For the spill, see Exxon Valdez oil spill. Exxon Valdez was the original name (later Sea River Mediterranean and eventually Mediterranean ," said Cristobal Bonifaz, lead attorney for the plaintiffs. Bonifaz is a native Ecuadorian who graduated from Temple University Law School in Philadelphia at the age of 49. He was formerly a chemical engineer with the DuPont Corporation. In December, 1994 Bonifaz and co-counsel Joseph C. Kohn, Esq. of the Philadelphia law firm of Kohn, Swift and Graf, filed a separate class action suit on behalf of thousands of Peruvian Indians, alleging that Texaco's drilling practices in Ecuador had caused massive pollution in the Napo River Napo River River, northeastern Ecuador and northeastern Peru. It rises in Ecuador and flows east across the Peruvian border through dense rainforests for about 550 mi (885 km) to empty into the Amazon River. It is an important transport route. as flows from Ecuador into Peru. Judge Rakoff has yet to rule on Texaco's motions to dismiss that case. Both lawsuits charge that Texaco engaged in "negligent, reckless, deliberate and outrageous acts" in the Ecuadorian Amazon by refusing to adhere to adhere to verb 1. follow, keep, maintain, respect, observe, be true, fulfil, obey, heed, keep to, abide by, be loyal, mind, be constant, be faithful 2. accepted standards in the oil industry regarding clean-up of toxic waste toxic waste is waste material, often in chemical form, that can cause death or injury to living creatures. It usually is the product of industry or commerce, but comes also from residential use, agriculture, the military, medical facilities, radioactive sources, and at drilling sites. Rather than pump unusable crude oil and toxic waste back into its wells, as is the common practice in the U.S., the suits allege To state, recite, assert, or charge the existence of particular facts in a Pleading or an indictment; to make an allegation. allege v. that Texaco dumped millions of gallons of oil waste into hundreds of man-made oil lagoons that blanket the Amazon region. Waste from these lagoons has been regularly discharged into local rivers and wetlands. Environmental disaster was compounded, says Bonifaz, by Texaco's practice of siphoning off lagoon lagoon Area of relatively shallow, quiet water with access to the sea but separated from it by sandbars, barrier islands, or coral reefs. Coastal lagoons have low to moderate tides and constitute about 13% of the world's coastline. oil and dumping it along the hundreds of miles of dirt roads dirt road n (US) → camino sin firme dirt road n → chemin non macadamisé or non revêtu dirt road dirt n which pass in front of houses and farms. The Ecuadorians say that Texaco has also set the oil lagoons on fire, causing what inhabitants
The game is based loosely on the concepts from SameGame. of the region refer to as "black rain." A previous federal judge handling the case, the late Judge Vincent Broderick, had steadfastly refused to grant any of Texaco's motions to dismiss, ordering Texaco to produce documents showing whether the company actually controlled its Ecuadorian oil operations from its Westchester County, New York '' Westchester County is a primarily suburban county located in the U.S. state of New York with about 950,000 residents. It is part of the New York Metropolitan Area. It was named after Chester, in England, and the county seat is White Plains. headquarters. If the court found that Texaco made key decisions from its sprawling corporate headquarters in suburban Westchester, that would buttress buttress, mass of masonry built against a wall to strengthen it. It is especially necessary when a vault or an arch places a heavy load or thrust on one part of a wall. the argument for hearing the case in the U.S., not Ecuador. Following months of resistance by the Texaco, attorneys for the Indians forced the corporate giant to turn over 75,000 pages of documents and they placed several of Texaco's corporate officers under oath for questioning. During that period of document `discovery' Judge Broderick succumbed to cancer and federal District Court Judge Barrington Parker was assigned, allowing the discovery process to proceed along Judge Broderick's guidelines. Judge Rakoff became the third judge assigned to the case in April, 1996. -0- NOTE TO EDITORS: A press conference is slated for Thursday, Jan. 23, 10:00 a.m., at the law offices of Beldock Levine & Hoffmann, 99 Park Avenue at 40th St., New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , N.Y. The Attorney General of Ecuador will officially make public his request for Justice Dept. intervention in the case. Counsel for the plaintiffs Cristobal Bonifaz, Esq. and Joseph C. Kohn, Esq., will be present and available for questions, as will an environmental activist from Ecuador, Paulina Garzon, Director of Accion Ecologica (Ecology Action), Quito. CONTACT: Henry Saint Dahl Jonathan Abady 212/490-0400 or Cristobal Bonifaz Joseph C. Kohn 413-369-4263 or 215/238-1700 or To arrange an interview: Brian Unger Brian Unger is an American comedian, writer, producer, and commentator. He was an original contributor to The Daily Show, from 1996 to 1998. Currently, he provides regular commentary for the NPR show Day to Day and guest hosts MSNBC's , 212/967-4622 |
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