Parties to a case in which Chevron is accused of being responsible for environmental damage in Ecuador’s Amazon rainforest are regrouping ahead of a potential verdict that could involve record compensation.
The US company faces claims it is responsible for damage caused by oil extraction between 1964 and 1990 by Texaco, a company that Chevron bought in 2001.
Chevron has denied the charges in the long-running case and has made its own allegations of corruption against Judge Juan Nunez, who is overseeing the procedures.
The oil giant on Tuesday posted on its Website a video it says shows members of Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa’s Alianza Pais party promising a US$3 million “commission” to Nunez once he hands down a verdict against Chevron.
The videos provoked a firestorm and rebuttals by government officials, and prompted Nunez on Thursday to offer to recuse himself from the case.
Chevron’s release of the footage, shot on hidden cameras, came shortly before Nunez was expected to announce his verdict on the case next month.
The stakes are high, with experts estimating last year that Chevron could be liable for damages of up to US$27 billion.
If correct, the figure would be significantly higher than the record US$5 billion, later reduced to US$500 million, that ExxonMobil was ordered to pay after an oil spill in Alaska.
The case comes against the backdrop of increasingly tense relations between Ecuador’s left-leaning president and foreign oil companies in the country, who are reassessing their operations.
In 2007, shortly after taking office, Correa did not hesitate to characterize Texaco’s actions in Ecuador as a “crime against humanity,” suggesting that “entire villages in the Amazon” have been wiped out as a result of their environmental damage.
The indigenous communities who first filed the case said they would continue to pursue Chevron, even seeking to have the company’s US assets seized, if the court does not rule in their favor.
Ecuador’s government on Wednesday denied allegations of impropriety, and said Chevron’s accusations were intended solely to “put pressure on the judge.”
Nunez told Ecuadoran radio station Sonorama that he had “handed over the proceedings to the president [of the court] so that decisions can be made ... without concerns about transparency.”
He told reporters that he offered to recuse himself “because of the accusations I am facing.”
“In four years, there have been four judges in charge of this case, and I am the fifth,” he said.
If Nunez is removed a final verdict would be delayed further while a replacement judge is found.
Pablo Fajardo, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, told reporters that Nunez’s resignation could be a “small victory” for Chevron because of the delays it is likely to cause.
WAITING GAME: The US has so far only offered a ‘best rate tariff,’ which officials assume is about 15 percent, the same as Japan, a person familiar with the matter said Taiwan and the US have completed “technical consultations” regarding tariffs and a finalized rate is expected to be released soon, Executive Yuan spokeswoman Michelle Lee (李慧芝) told a news conference yesterday, as a 90-day pause on US President Donald Trump’s “reciprocal” tariffs is set to expire today. The two countries have reached a “certain degree of consensus” on issues such as tariffs, nontariff trade barriers, trade facilitation, supply chain resilience and economic security, Lee said. They also discussed opportunities for cooperation, investment and procurement, she said. A joint statement is still being negotiated and would be released once the US government has made
‘CRUDE’: The potential countermeasure is in response to South Africa renaming Taiwan’s representative offices and the insistence that it move out of Pretoria Taiwan is considering banning exports of semiconductors to South Africa after the latter unilaterally downgraded and changed the names of Taiwan’s two representative offices, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) said yesterday. On Monday last week, the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation unilaterally released a statement saying that, as of April 1, the Taipei Liaison Offices in Pretoria and Cape Town had been renamed the “Taipei Commercial Office in Johannesburg” and the “Taipei Commercial Office in Cape Town.” Citing UN General Assembly Resolution 2758, it said that South Africa “recognizes the People’s Republic of China (PRC) as the sole
NEW GEAR: On top of the new Tien Kung IV air defense missiles, the military is expected to place orders for a new combat vehicle next year for delivery in 2028 Mass production of Tien Kung IV (Sky Bow IV) missiles is expected to start next year, with plans to order 122 pods, the Ministry of National Defense’s (MND) latest list of regulated military material showed. The document said that the armed forces would obtain 46 pods of the air defense missiles next year and 76 pods the year after that. The Tien Kung IV is designed to intercept cruise missiles and ballistic missiles to an altitude of 70km, compared with the 60km maximum altitude achieved by the Missile Segment Enhancement variant of PAC-3 systems. A defense source said yesterday that the number of
Taiwanese exports to the US are to be subject to a 20 percent tariff starting on Thursday next week, according to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump yesterday. The 20 percent levy was the same as the tariffs imposed on Vietnam, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh by Trump. It was higher than the tariffs imposed on Japan, South Korea and the EU (15 percent), as well as those on the Philippines (19 percent). A Taiwan official with knowledge of the matter said it is a "phased" tariff rate, and negotiations would continue. "Once negotiations conclude, Taiwan will obtain a better
RSS