Texaco accused of damaging Amazon basin

[Editorial Note: If Ecuador is successful in this, we will see a lot more such demands from Brazil, Peru, Venezuela, maybe even Colombia.]

Correa accuses Texaco
Fri, 27 Apr 2007

American oil company Texaco was accused by president Correa as being responsible for the ecological damages caused in the Amazon basin.

He said the catastrophic damages not only recalled those suffered by the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989 (in which Alaska Sea was polluted with 11 million gallons of crude oil) but were proved to be much worse in the Amazon case.

During his visit to some areas in eastern Orellana and Sucumbios provinces, President Correa stressed that "the atrocity committed by the multinational" must be witnessed by the world.

More than one thousand pools of waste exist in the Amazon basin today, where Texaco company drilled for crude oil from 1964 to the early 90's.

He termed the cause of the contaminations as "wild capitalism" and concluded that the $40 million compensation paid by Texaco was nothing more than "the same amount the president of the firm won as salary last year."

Correa expects the American oil firm to answer for the damages of their 30 year exploitations.

ZHD/KB

Pictures of ecological damage: [Full Gallery at Newsday.com]




Source: Press TV, Newsday