Ecuador Amazon plantiffs fight Chevron over dumping

By Alonso Soto

SAN CARLOS, Ecuador (Reuters) - After a 14-year court battle, Ecuadorean jungle dwellers expect a verdict next year in their lawsuit charging Chevron with polluting the Amazon and vow to fight more delays by the U.S. oil giant.

Peasants and Indians are suing Chevron Corp for $6 billion in a local court over accusations its Texaco unit polluted the jungle and damaged their health by dumping 18 billion gallons of contaminated water from 1972 to 1992.

"We believe there will be a ruling in the second half of 2008," said Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the 30,000 plaintiffs.

He said he will fight delaying tactics he expects the company to employ as a local judge gets close to a verdict.

Texaco, bought by Chevron in 2001, denies its operations affected the health of Amazon communities.

The California-based company argues it was released from any liability when it paid $40 million for an environmental cleanup in the 1990s and blames state oil company Petroecuador for much of the pollution.

Standing next to her wooden shack in the jungle hamlet of San Carlos, 54-year-old Gloria Castillo hopes for compensation over the oil-contaminated water she says made her family sick.

"We are tired of it," said Castillo, her house surrounded by cocoa and coffee trees.

"My daughter-in-law had a miscarriage and I have these welts on my legs," she said of the red spots above her ankles.

The plaintiffs' lawyers said there are thousands of Amazonians sick from water and soil contamination, ranging from cancer to skin diseases. But they say it is very difficult to prove the illnesses were caused by the company's operations because of the plaintiffs' poor living conditions.

A U.S. federal court last month dismissed two separate claims filed by an American lawyer accusing Chevron of harming the health of Ecuadoreans.

NO DUE PROCESS

Chevron asked the Ecuadorean court in October to drop the lawsuit, saying it is the victim of a trial that has ignored due process and that it will go to international courts to challenge any negative ruling in Ecuador.

Chevron, which no longer has operations in Ecuador, says the left-leaning government of President Rafael Correa has interfered in the trial on behalf of the plaintiffs and that the judge unfairly dismissed evidence the company wanted to introduce.

"When they talk about the trial they are not talking about judicial process, but a process that has been completely politicized and corrupted by false propaganda that has no basis in law and facts," Chevron's lawyer Silvia Garrigo said.