May 26, 2010 ECrisis today commends Chevron Texaco for doing the right thing in Ecuador. That company, after fifteen years of ridiculous incompetence wherein their own legal team as contractors and employees failed to state the facts about the lawsuit against them, and by this we mean the whole story of the internecine extortion racket claiming vast so called environmental crimes- also called the so called plaintiffs- by Texaco which never happened by Texaco’s acts and demanding about $30 billion for the racket bringing the claims, has been inadequate and pathetic in getting the facts out. Indeed, the incompetent arrogance of their vapid legal activities belied a normal loser position held by many Ecuadoreans which is a stubborn refusal to be anything but passive-aggressive and appear tricky and dishonest. Chevron Texaco was and is on the side of the angels in this war of attrition and slander against Chevron because there was never any original sin by the company and no valid claims against Texaco. Certainly the voluminous damages against the nation of Ecuador, as perpetrated by the nefarious so called legal team calling themselves plaintiffs counsel are liars and manipulators. It just did not help Texaco to refuse year after year as its own failed to detail the fulsome facts on their own behalf and in so doing share the facts with the nation as a whole. Indeed, by stumbling around with an incompetent, vapid arrogant smirk, as was the case for too many years by Texaco’s own company lawyers inside Ecuador, the company looked pathetic and incompetent….like they were hiding something.  This affliction is not Chevron’s creation alone and is today a well-known personality defect- a serious flaw- held by far too many Ecuadoreans who are stubbornly addicted to looking stupid, professing an addiction to their own ignorance and are for too lazy to even be concerned about truth telling, even when billion of dollars are on the line. It is not a character trait that Ecuadoreans should be proud of and all are well served to banish their self inflicted addiction to looking decidedly manipulative and dumb. For its part, it appears that Chevron Texaco has come out of the closet at last –standing proudly as truth tellers do- and reveals that they are not hiding one single thing. This series of recent behavioral changes by Chevron connotes a maturity and decency which brings structural fact sharing to the forefront. The company’s disclosures of facts and data sharing is at last welcome and very important. This truth-telling approach by Chevron  has changed noticeably of late and it is a welcome change for the common good.

We note this because, like history, the facts may be cold and they may be hard or good or bad or ugly. But the facts must be on the table for good or bad.

As Ambassador Otto Reich often says, `It is never too late to change for the good.’ And in this, he is correct.  Here is the update:

Chevron Seeks To Dismiss Ecuador Court Appointment

By Mercedes Alvaro, Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES            5-24-10

QUITO -(Dow Jones)- Chevron Corp. (CVX) has asked a provincial court in Ecuador to nullify a court-appointed expert from an environmental lawsuit and to throw out his work due to what the company alleges was misconduct.

Chevron has asked the Provincial Court of Sucumbios to declare null the appointment of Richard Cabrera, a geologist, the company said in a statement Monday.

Chevron said that it "has uncovered new evidence" that Cabrera "has had ongoing and surreptitious contacts with plaintiffs' representatives and that a substantial portion of Cabrera's court-ordered analysis is based on materials that could only have been provided by the plaintiffs' representatives outside of the court proceeding."

Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said the allegations are an attempt by Chevron to delay the trial.

In November 2008, Cabrera told the court that Chevron should pay more than $27 billion in compensation for environmental damages in the Andean country.

Chevron is facing the lawsuit in Ecuador for alleged contamination by Texaco in the Amazon city of Lago Agrio, in Sucumbios province, before its 2001 merger with Chevron.

The company is accused of having used out-of-date technology that led to environmental damage. Chevron denies the accusations.

Cabrera was appointed by the Court in 2007 to perform an investigation of the environmental effects of oil operations in the area where Texaco operated.

According Chevron, the evidence shows that Cabrera violated his legal duties and worked directly with the plaintiffs' lawyers and consultants.

The company alleged that Colorado-based Stratus Consulting, a company working for the plaintiffs' lawyers, had direct communications with Cabrera and that Cabrera had used portions of studies "furnished by Stratus employees and subcontractors in his damages assessment."

Fajardo said that Cabrera had worked independently and that it was possible that he had included information that had been asked for through the court system.

Asked about the involvement of Stratus, Fajardo said, "They are our technical advisers in the United States, and they have worked with us for some years, but they have never interfered in the trial."

Cabrera and U.S.-based lawyers weren't immediately available for comment.

 
  (END) Dow Jones Newswires
  05-24-101551ET
  Copyright (c) 2010 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
 
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This week, Chevron Texaco has correctly petitioned the nation of Ecuador’s so called justice in the so called town of Lago Agrio. We say so called because under Correa’s 9-08 constitution, there is no even handed justice- there is only Correa’s control of justice. This too was never ever challenged by Chevron’s incompetent domestic counsel as a critical sea change in even handed justice inside Ecuador. Post 9-08, there was never a chance that Correa’s team was not using the so called court in Lago Agrio for its own. This is noticeable in the series of abusive and dishonest court activities, also not noted by past Chevron executives, which are indeed germane to their problem at hand. The Lago Agrio court house and the Sucumbios province is a hot bed of dastardly evil wrong doers. It is a lawless zone which has multiplied in recent years because Correa permits this. there is a huge swath of newcomers to Lago Agrio: Mexican and FARC cartel actors, Hezbollah and Cuban actors, weapons runners, kidnappers, sex trade pervs and perps plus the brisk trade in so called paramilitary protective services. This is the same zone that Correa protected for his money makers from the FARC. Raul Reyes found the zone convenient for his intel plantation- the FARC’s command and control center. This is the same zone that has launched a specious attack, sometimes called the state of Ecuador suing….Colombia and in particular Ministro Santos plus is the same zone from which stems the specious and ridiculous lawsuit of the nation of Ecuador against Colombia and the DynCorp company for aerial spraying.

Of course the Correa team of liars have paid lots of money to gin up their so called legal proofs against DynCorps and Colombia…proofs which are based on fake evidence and fake data, claiming environmental destruction and cancer deaths. To be sure, the same so called expert for the state/for Ecuador delivered the same fake data and same fake claims of cancer and environmental destruction regarding the Texaco oil activities, which actually were stopped by illegal seizure by Rodrigo Borja between 1988-90 in his stunning caducidad of another’s property as Borja consolidated his Marxist plan for Ecuador under Petroecuador. For its part, Petroecuador has a horrifying track record of criminality andstate sponsored malfeasance and inoperability for well over 20 years. Petroecuador simply put is incompetent. You know this because the nation watches as Petroecuador today under Correa fails to provide stable state income and no one knows what Correa does with the oil income… it is gone.

But Petroecuador controlled all that Texaco did under contract while it operated inside Ecuador. Although the last seriously functioning oil company inside Ecuador besides Occidental, Texaco suffers enormous lies and racketeering today by a string of liars claiming it is all Texaco’s fault as to what happens in the Lago Agrio zone- a region with no state services, no water treatment and no sanitation, no property rights for the illegal squatters and not one police person who is not on the make and take of and for the FARC-riddled state. Of course it does not help that no one reviews the zone of utter lawlessness in Lago Agrio.

The nation of Ecuador has been caught with its pants off and believe us when we say… with their pants down, the government of Ecuador is not pretty at all. In fact the only ones who think that Correa’s regime in the buff is attractive is in fact his own inner group of perps and pervs, also called Correa’s Pink Curtain. We just call Correa’s cabinet and closet hangers-on as Those Who Have No True Friends Because They Have No Honor and remain repulsive in every way.  The Correa government has knowingly engaged to defraud its own public with fake so called damage analysis of the PetroEcuador dumping grounds called the FARC zone outside Lago Agrio. Correa’s government, as with his dishonest claims against Mr. Santos and its dishonest claims against DynCorp and Colombia for aerial spraying uses the same liar, Mr. Cabrera for the nexus of its $30 billion whopper of a claim against Texaco.

ECrisis suggests you review this formal request to Mrs Clinton in Washington, D.C. regarding Hugo Chavez and his stubborn sponsoring of terror. As anyone with a brain knows. Correa of Ecuador has moved further and faster in this realm of evil than has Chavez. Correa simply games diplomats and easily seduced idiots to sell his special brand of falsehoods. Always the liar and  never the truth teller, Correa’s Ecuador today is riddled with global criminals and pervs. Correa considers them….family. We do not. Twelve senators signed this letter . Mrs Clinton must respond factually- 

What will Correa do when the same letter is shipped out regarding Correa’s own acts? How far will he get in his Standard Procedure of manipulating all around him? Will you, like the Quito AMCHAM, enjoy being paid to fly around and lie some more about Correa’s wonderfulness or would you stand up for the facts? Will Ecuadoreans at last cease and desist the holy protection racket of honor in name only and demand true honor at last?

Somehow we do worry that Ecuadoreans are so addicted to their claim that it is sacred to unite with liars, perps, pervs and manipulators while relaxing every week end in a haze that we fear  that by their own hands, Ecuadoreans will stay stuck in their own laziness and vapidity. We hope not. But as Otto Reich says, there is always hope. What are you doing to turn hope into reality?

-Pedro Camargo for ECrisis