Judge recuses himself from Chevron case in Ecuador

[Judi Lynn]

Judge recuses himself from Chevron case in Ecuador
By JEANNETH VALDIVIESO
QUITO, Ecuador

The Ecuadorean judge presiding over a $27 billion environmental lawsuit against Chevron recused himself Friday amid an investigation into allegations of wrongdoing.

Earlier this week, Chevron released three video recordings in which provincial Judge Juan Evangelista Nunez allegedly told two businessmen -- an Ecuadorean with ties to Chevron, Diego Borja, and an American businessman, Wayne Hansen -- that he had already made up his mind to rule against the company.

Nunez denies the allegations, saying the tape was "edited and manipulated," but told The Associated Press that he is stepping down to facilitate the government's investigation.

Ecuadorean Attorney General Washington Pesantez told a news conference Friday that he personally asked the judge to recuse himself to avoid further delays in the trial and stop what he said he suspects may be the company's efforts to discredit the court's eventual ruling.

~snip~
Chevron officials deny the company paid for the videos or sent its own employees to record them, and insist they don't know why the men made the recordings or turned them over to the company. But they acknowledge that the Ecuadorean who appears in the recording is a former contractor for Chevron.

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9AGT8QG0.htm

[Peace Patriot]

1. Poor Chevron! They can't buy the president! They can't buy the legislature! They can't buy the

judge! And they dare not (thus far) kill anybody, cuz times have changed in Latin America, and corpo/fascist thugs are actually getting prosecuted for murder. They are forced to resort to Donald Rumsfeld's "Office of Special Plans-in-Exile"--or, if those guys are too busy in Colombia "proving" that the president of Venezuela, er, the president of Bolivia, er, the president of Ecuador, is a 'terrorist"--their own private shop, to cock up aluminum tubes...er, "miracle laptopS," er, suitcases full of money out of Miami, er spliced up "videos" of an ex-employee and an "American businessman" sliming the judge.

What's a poor global corporate predator to do, if they can't purchase or terrorize the government? They have "obligations" to their stockholders; they've made certain promises to their trophy wives; they'll be hazed at Bohemian Grove, if they get humiliated by a bunch of shoeless indians in the Amazon jungle! O beautiful, for spacious skies, For amber waves of grain, For purple mountain majesties, Above the fruited plain! America! America! God shed His grace on thee, And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.

:cry: :hide: :cry: