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Disaster Capitalism in Ecuador
By Staff Writers, teleSUR
teleSUR
Tuesday, May 3, 2016
Ecuador Forced to Pay US Oil Giant $180M
People receive donations from volunteers as rescue efforts continue in Pedernales, after an earthquake struck off Ecuador's Pacific coast, April 20, 2016. | Photo: Reuters
The Ecuadorean government is being ordered to pay US$180 million payment on Friday to the multinational oil corporation Occidental, just two weeks after a major earthquake struck the country, killing hundreds and causing billions of dollars in damage. The government is being forced to use money that could go toward relief efforts to instead pay off a multinational oil company.
"Urgently needed public resources are being channelled to an oil multinational during an emergency because of a decision by for-profit arbitrators at a secretive international tribunal,” said Cecilia Olivet, a researcher with the Transnational Institute, a center-left think tank based in Amsterdam.
The final payment is part of a total settlement of US$980 million imposed on the Ecuadorean government by the World Bank-affiliated International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The settlement came after the Ecuador terminated an oil concession due a breach of contract and national law on the part of Occidental. The U.S. oil giant then sued the government at an international investment arbitration tribunal, the product of the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty. The massive reward came despite the tribunal acknowleding that Occidental broke the law.
"Urgently needed public resources are being channelled to an oil multinational during an emergency because of a decision by for-profit arbitrators at a secretive international tribunal,” said Cecilia Olivet, a researcher with the Transnational Institute, a center-left think tank based in Amsterdam.
The final payment is part of a total settlement of US$980 million imposed on the Ecuadorean government by the World Bank-affiliated International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID).
The settlement came after the Ecuador terminated an oil concession due a breach of contract and national law on the part of Occidental. The U.S. oil giant then sued the government at an international investment arbitration tribunal, the product of the U.S.-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty. The massive reward came despite the tribunal acknowleding that Occidental broke the law.
Full article: http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_73907.shtml
