August 14, 2010 A few days ago, a newspaper in the USA wrote factually that Correa’s government in Quito was linked with the specious lawsuit against Chevron Texaco. In moments, Correa’s Chavista ambassador in Washington who controls many public relations and lobbying contracts whipped out a denial based on no facts. Indeed, all one has to do is watch the so called movie CRUDE to see actual footage of Correa flying off to Lago Agrio to aid and abet the so called plaintiffs against Chevron. And that is just for starters. But Gallegos likes to lie a lot in the American and Ecuadorean media because no one ever calls him on his non facts. But the newspaper retorted with strong words for Gallegos and this phony lawsuit. Enough said. Read it yourself:

To be sure, Luis Gallegos is a paid liar. He thinks that makes his career distinguished. We would remind Gallegos that when the case was asked by the government of Ecuador to be relocated to Ecuador, not only were the courts not controlled by the Correa regime but the lawsuit itself was entirely different. The original case that was moved, on the legal basis of forum non conveniens applied with the first law suit. The law suit currently being heard is very different and the legal principle of forum non conveniens no longer applies….the two cases are different although counsel Donziger, Ponce and a few others remain the same. Indeed, Texaco had not yet had a chance to do the completed work which it did do voluntarily to clean up almost 100 pits. The case today should be voided by any sensible judge.

The Obama administration has done all it can behind the scenes to aid and abet the fake lawsuit to scam Chevron and the public. The U.S. Democrats have unlawfully spent U.S. taxpayer monies to send Congressional delegations to propagandize with the fake lawsuit progeny, touring Sucumbios with Speaker of the House Pelosi’s blessings and mabuse of money. The U.S. embassy in Quito has always jumped to assist the dishonest lawyers against Chevron even though Chevron is an American company which no one at State Department cares enough about to be honest or forthright about what is going on here.
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EDITORIAL: Ecuador's Chevron shakedown
Environmental case designed to grab billions
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

7:03 p.m., Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Ecuadorean Ambassador Luis Gallegos says in a letter on this page that "the government of Ecuador has no stake in the outcome of the private environmental litigation." The facts show otherwise. On multiple occasions, the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, has weighed in against Chevron, making clear that his government has prejudged the case that claims the country suffered grave ecological damage from energy drilling performed by Texaco before the company became part of Chevron.

To cite one of many examples of fairness, Mr. Correa announced on Jan. 19, 2008, that the Amazon Defense Front, advocate of record for the plaintiffs in the case, "has all the support of the national government. ... They know they can count on the support given by the national government." In a weekly presidential broadcast on Aug. 9, 2008, Mr. Correa blasted Chevron and its defense, saying, "Washington Pesantez, the public prosecutor, has wisely opened investigations to sanction these people, because it is a lie. Nothing had been solved; no contamination had been remediated."

The Ecuadorean government has also opened criminal investigations against a pair of lawyers who worked with Chevron and against former government officials who gave Chevron-Texaco a clean bill of health more than a decade ago. This sent a chilling message to anybody contemplating cooperation with the oil company. The judge appointed to the case was caught on video discussing what sounded remarkably like a bribe. The government-appointed independent expert had a contract with the government-owned firm Petroecuador, meaning judgment against a major competitor like Chevron could bring a substantial payday.

The biggest jackpot of all is reserved for Ecuador itself. "From what we know, the amount of the claim is for 27 billion dollars, twice the state's budget in a year," Washington Pesantez said at a Sept. 4, 2009, press conference. "Although I don't have the exact figures, 10 percent would go to the plaintiffs if Chevron is found guilty; 90 percent would be delivered to the state for remediation or bio-remediation activities."

That's quite a "stake" in the lawsuit. If the Ecuadorean state is going to stack the deck against an American company and its shareholders, the U.S. government ought to fight back with its diplomatic muscle.
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LETTER TO THE EDITOR: Government not involved in Chevron suit

The Washington Times
7:04 p.m., Wednesday, August 11, 2010

I was surprised by your editorial "Drilling Chevron in Ecuador" (Comment & Analysis, Monday) calling on the U.S. government to come to the defense of one of the world's biggest oil companies. Chevron certainly has the resources to defend itself without the support of American taxpayers.

Your readers need to understand that neither the U.S. government nor the government of my country, Ecuador, is a participant in this private lawsuit. It was brought by attorneys in the United States and Ecuador on behalf of indigenous tribes that allege their lands were polluted from oil drilling by Texaco, a company Chevron has since absorbed. The suit began in U.S. federal courts and moved to the Ecuadorean courts because Chevronasked the U.S. courts to send the case there.

As a U.S. federal court judge observed only last week, Chevron "like* the Ecuadorean courts when they were in the pocket of the oil companies but now is apparently having second thoughts given the current populist regime."

Simply put, the government of Ecuador has no stake in the outcome of the private environmental litigation, although Chevron seems determined to try to pull us into the case as a legal tactic.

LUIS GALLEGOS
Ambassador, Republic of Ecuador
Washington

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EDITORIAL: Drilling Chevron in Ecuador
U.S. oil giant victimized by polluted lawsuit
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES

7:02 p.m., Friday, August 6, 2010

Chevron Corp. dropped a bombshell last week in defending against a gold-digging lawsuit from Ecuador. The U.S. government should stand up for the California-based company and its millions of American stakeholders.

On Aug. 3, Chevron filed in federal court some transcripts of video footage appearing to show collusion between the American lawyers pushing the suit and a purportedly independent environmental expert assigned to the case by the Ecuadorean court. This consultant, Richard Cabrera, conjured up damages to the Ecuadorean ecosystem broad enough to turn a $1.5 billion suit into a $27 billion monster.

When the Ecuadorean court appointed Mr. Cabrera in May 2007, he signed an oath to perform his duties "faithfully ... with complete impartiality and independence vis-a-vis the parties." Mr. Cabrera, however, already was in bed with the plaintiffs. Video taken two weeks before his appointment shows him meeting with plaintiffs' attorneys and others. A member of the group explained their plans to involve "our entire technical team ... of experts, scientists, attorneys, political scientists, so that all will contribute to the report - in other words, you see ... the work isn't going to be the expert's" (i.e., Mr. Cabrera's).

Pressed on that point, the speaker restates: "What the expert is going to do is [unintelligible] and sign the report and review it. But all of us [unintelligible] have to contribute to that report ... together." One of the plaintiffs' environmental analysts adds, to much laughter, "But not Chevron."

Another outtake shows the two analysts alerting lead plaintiff attorney Steven Donziger that they "don't have" solid evidence on "the extent of the contamination." Mr. Donziger responds: "This is Ecuador, OK. You can say whatever you want, and at the end of the day, there's a thousand people around the courthouse, you're going to get what you want. ... If we take our existing evidence ... and wanted to extrapolate based on nothing other than our, um, theory ... we can do it. And we can get money for it."

This evidence of what Chevron calls "pervasive corruption and fraud" comes on top of other embarrassments for the plaintiffs and the left-wing Ecuadorean government. Last August, the Ecuadorean judge assigned to the case was filmed discussing what sounded like a bribery scheme. In February, Dow Jones reported that Mr. Cabrera was the main shareholder of an environmental remediation company registered to do the lucrative work that could ensue from the lawsuit. In April, the main U.S.-based expert for the plaintiffs, Charles Calmbacher, swore under oath that the plaintiffs' lawyers had submitted fraudulent reports under his name.

All of this involves sites the Ecuadorean government certified - in 1998 - had been cleaned up. The suit is a transparent shakedown by a foreign government that the U.S. State Department, the United Nations and the International Bar Association all have labeled as unreliable or corrupt. The victim isn't Ecuador; it's the U.S. oil firm, its 206,000 shareholders and all the retirees whose pension funds invest in Chevron. It's time for the Obama administration to step in by suspending Ecuador's trade preferences and taking other diplomatic action to isolate its crooked government.

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Ambassador Gallegos is an eyesore and a sore liar. No one respects him except those he pays…and he is spending a lot to lie all the time.

-Pedro Camargo for Ecrisis