In the heart of the Ecuadoran Amazon, the shouts of protesting Indians mute the sound of an overhead plane.
"Texaco must pay for polluting our lands," the Indians insist.
But, says an executive with the US oil company: "We won't be spending US$6 billion."
This brief confrontation, peaceful but strained, takes place at the tiny airport in this town of 20,000, 200km east of Quito in Ecuador's oil-producing region.
The country produces 418,000 barrels of crude per day, but is not a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).
"Half a million hectares of sacred indian lands were polluted by Texaco's oil production -- we demand that the firm clean it all up," says Luis Yanza, spokesman for the 50 protesters, who put the price at around US$6 billion.
The region's four indigenous peoples -- the Siona, the Huaorani, the Cofan and the Shuar -- total about 30,000 people.
In July last year they took on Texaco in the Ecuadoran courts, seeking reparation for alleged damages.
Texpet, Chevron Texaco's Latin American subsidiary, put together a team of experts here to take a group of journalists on a site visit.
The conclusion, according to Texpet attorney Rodrigo Perez: "Texpet acted in accordance with the law and has conducted a detailed cleaning program on the sites that concern it," said Rodrigo Perez, attorney for the company in Quito.
They cite favorable reports following site inspections by United Research Services of Wayne, New Jersey, which specializes in environmental studies.
Texpet says Petroecuador, Ecuador's national oil company, not Texaco, is to blame.
From 1992, the time its contract ended, Texpet ceased all oil production activities in Ecuador, launched in 1964.
In all it pumped 1.7 billion barrels of oil in the Amazonian region, as part of a consortium in which it had a 37.5 percent stake, versus Petroecuador's 62.5 percent.
Petroecuador, since 1992, has gone it alone.
"From 1995 to 1998, all 161 of our former sites were cleaned up," insists Jaime Varela-Walker, Chevron Texaco CEO in Mexico.
At five former oil production sites visited, oil storage pits have been emptied and covered in earth.
"Look how the grass has grown back," says Jorge Bueno Galdo, a URS expert, at site Shushufindi-29.
The neighboring pit has been replaced by a 150 hectare palm grove.
In front of a filled-in former reservoir, he points to a tree laden with limes.
Texaco spent more on the clean-up than its budgeted US$13 million.
"We spent US$40 million," said Rodrigo Perez. "We aren't going to spend another US$6 billion," he said.
Petroecuador sends its oil via the 500km trans-Ecuadoran pipeline linking Lago Agrio, north of Coca, with the port of Balao on the Pacific coast.
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