Six years ago, the Courts of Ecuador issued against American oil giant Chevron a $9.5 billion judgment. This is believed to be the largest civil judgment in history. It arose out of the massive contamination of waters in the Ecuadorian jungle, referred to by local villagers as the “Chernobyl of the Amazon”. Before Ecuador’s courts issued the judgment, Chevron sold its assets in Ecuador, and thereby obliged the plaintiffs to collect on the judgment in other jurisdictions. In this report, I speak to human rights lawyer Steven Donziger, who has represented the Ecuadorian plaintiffs for over two decades. Steven explains that the U.S. Courts have refused to enforce the judgment against Chevron on the basis of evidence which Chevron has fabricated through the bribery of a key witness. But the Ecuadorian plaintiffs are also seeking to enforce the judgment in Canada and Brazil, where the Courts are likely to be far less receptive to the testimony of Chevron’s star witness. My interview of Steven Donziger can be watched here:
http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19374:US-Supreme-Court-Declines-to-Hear-Chevron-Pollution-Case
