Ecuador says it will not submit to US mediation

[bemildred]

in Texaco environmental case.

Ugly pic.

QUITO : Ecuador will not submit to mediation in New York as
proposed by US oil giant Texaco, from which indigenous people
here are seeking billions of dollars in damages for alleged
environmental harm to their land, the South American country's
top law enforcement officer said.

---

Ecuadoran Attorney General Jose Maria Borja told foreign
correspondents Texaco's proposal for mediation in New York was
"incompetent, immoral and inappropriate because it is an affront
to the sovereignty of our country."

Channel News Asia

[denverbill]

1. Pshaw. National sovereignty is so 20th century.

All bow down to Mother Texaco and father Walmart.

[tlcandie]

2. Good for them! Talk to Chavez and seek help and support

to stand against the tyranny of the US!!

[Vogon_Glory]

3. More Erosion of Respect for the USA

I'm not surprised that the Ecuadorian government won't allow the US federal government to mediate for the indigenous peoples of Ecuador. The contempt with which the Runnin' Dubya Posse has treated Latin America since the pResident was inaugurated, coupled with the blatant, ham-handed meddling of right-wingers like Otto Reich and Roger Noriega, is bringing US influence in the region to lows it hasn't had since the more powerful Chilean Navy told the US to back off in the 1880s.

[bemildred]

5. Yes, exactly, and getting away with it too ... nt

[Demeter]

4. I Should HOPE Not

Hell, I'm a citizen and I'm not going to bow down, either!

[Judi Lynn]

6. They have absolutely no social conscience, whatsoever

Since oil delivers more than 50% of the country's total revenue, Texaco seems to believe Equador is simply its "piggybank," meant as a money maker for Texaco, and any of those silly poor people who have to live there can just put a sock in it, and thank their blessings,whatever they are!



A mother takes her baby to be examined by a medical worker in Coca, a town in the Ecuadoran Amazon. The baby appears to be suffering from dermatosis -- a common skin condition that local medical workers believe results from prolonged exposure to contaminated water. Because there is no running water in the region, most people bathe in rivers and creeks, almost all of which are contaminated by runoff from the toxic waste pits.


Steven Donziger

Humberto Piaguaje, leader of the Secoya tribe, after the court hearing on February 1, 1999.



One of the estimated 300 toxic waste pits built by Texaco in the Ecuadoran Amazon. The stream of water leading into the pit contains life-threatending levels of carcinogens such as Benzene, Toluene, and Polyciclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons. These pits are unlined, allowing their contents to contaminate the area's water supply and disrupt the fragile ecosystem.



This image is typical of the current state of many of the unlined waste pits left in Ecuador by Texaco. When these pits fill up, their toxic contents either overflow into the surrounding rainforest or oil workers use a suction hose to put the toxic-laden sludge into trucks. The trucks then spread the sludge over the dirt roads in the region in an ostensible effort to keep the dust down. In reality, this practice disperses the toxics over a wider area. Many residents are forced to walk over the layer of sludge barefoot. Others have had their farms damaged by runoff from the roads.

http://www.texacorainforest.com/link/

Who are these shabby people, anyway, and why don't they have decent houses and great cars? Have they honed their "swings?" Sheesh!

In _Bush's world, people don't matter if they're not serving the same god: Pure, Cold, Dead-at-the-Core Materialism.

[Polemonium]

7. Thanks for the reminder

It is sad that Bush has so flooded the world with policy atrocities that I had actually not thought of these long standing injustices for quite awhile.