Interviews from Washington DC - Chevron in the Amazon

In today’s edition, our host Jorge Gestoso interviews activist Santiago Escobar on the fight to make corporate giant Chevron pay for dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon rainforest in the Sucumbíos province of Ecuador over two decades ago. Chevron lost one lawsuit filed by indigenous communities and is required to pay US$9.5 billion to those affected, but in an effort to avoid its responsibility, has filed suit against Ecuador to force the government to pay for the damages. Santiago Escobar, who has received threats on his life from Chevron, is in Washington DC demanding justice for Ecuador in a series of arbitration tribunals under the auspices of The Hague. Although such tribunals generally favor corporate interests, says Escobar, the most recent ruling stated that Ecuador correctly allowed indigenous communities to sue Chevron. Escobar confirms that the size of the disaster in the Amazon is six to seven times as great as that of the British Petroleum spill in the Gulf of Mexico and 40 times as great as the Exxon-Valdez spill in Alaska. The activist says that solidarity caravans are arriving from indigenous communities in Canada and different points in the United States to support Ecuador and its indigenous peoples in this battle. teleSUR