Chevron case adds support for actress Lucy LaWless.

Por Raúl Muñoz. Quito, Thursday, October 21, 2021. Lucy, New Zealand actress and activist Lawless, is in Ecuador, visiting the areas affected by oil contamination left by the Chevron Texaco Transnational Petroleum Company, during its oil exploitation in Lago Agrio, Sucumbíos Province in the Amazon region. «I always thought it was very important for me, as Xina, the warrior princess, to come to the Amazon, but I did not think to do so under these circumstances.» My reason for being here is because I met the human rights lawyer, Steven Dozinger, who has become a close friend, who is a man of great love, said the actress, who is still “A PRINCESS”, at a press conference.

The people of the English-speaking world, as well as the United Nations working group, are very impressed that Steven is in this situation and that the Ecuador process is called a fraud. In reality the attack on Steven Dozinger is an attack on the trial and on these people; the damage after 40 or 50 years is still there and the contamination has not faded.

Yesterday I met people from San Carlos, La Primavera, La Victoria, Lago Agrio, Shushufindi and there was more than one tear shed. These people are so eloquent and so intelligent and they are so deep about the pain they have felt, they are very proud, humble people who do not complain, because after all, if they complain, nobody listens to them. But Steven, the lawyers and the defense front of the Amazon are listening to this. «I am listening to this, and I ask you to pay attention and listen.»

This is an immense victory that they have won as Hermes said, a judgment, which is 9.5 million dollars, and this is a very important achievement. When Chevron appealed, they lost again, they deserve respect, for their hearts, for their determination to get things done and they have a heart like that of a “Lion”. This is the reason why I became an actress, because I have the ability to feel the pain of people, including those who have not yet been born.

There are people who have died, as in the case of Rosa Moreno, who was a nurse who helped cancer patients in the community of San Carlos, who later also died; or the incredible Alejandro Soto, organizer and leader who also died with cancer, his remains are buried with his mother and brother. I have also met daughters and mothers who are sick with cancer.

So, in order to stop this series of lung and stomach cancer diseases that people suffer in different parts of the body and in the nervous system, it has to be remedied because if not, the consequences of the diseases will continue more and more. «I wonder what Chevron shareholders would think if someone would dump Diesel in their garden.» So, they have not only lost their garden, but they have lost their potential, to learn to grow crops and drink water.

We demand that the oil company pay the 9.5 million dollars, so that these children who live in the area can have a decent life. (Spanish translation by FDA attorney Patricio Salazar).

The Leader Ermel Chávez President of FDA, clarifies that the lawsuit against Chevrón Texaco is a private lawsuit, which involves a group of affected parties and a company, and as such the Ecuadorian State does not intervene, as private and affected we have won Chevron, holds. The only thing that the State has to do is guarantee that this sentence is enforceable.

Although the transnational has brought lawsuits against the State, it will know how to respond through the attorney general’s office; but that does not mean that you have participation in this process. However, it should be noted that at the time, then-President Rafael Correa intervened on his own, even bringing some personalities (Actors) from Hollywood to visit the affected area.

The lawyer for those affected, the American Steven Donziger, has been under house arrest in New York for more than two years, and should be immediately released and compensated, says the United Nations. According to a recent opinion, the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which after analyzing the case has determined that the deprivation of liberty of the lawyer was ordered irregularly and violated international laws, including the right to a fair trial.

Donziger represented Amazonian indigenous groups in a media lawsuit in Lago Agrio in which he obtained that the oil company was sentenced in 2011 to pay a compensation of 9.500 million dollars for the environmental damages committed by Texaco (acquired by Chevron in 2001) between 1963 and 1990.

His case has attracted the sympathy of Hollywood actors, writers, Nobel laureates and other personalities who have publicly spoken in favor of the lawyer.

Patricio Salazar, FDA attorney, clarified the causes of Dozinger’s arrest, which are considered in contempt, for not having presented his passport, his computer and other requirements demanded by a US judge and now that » contempt ”has been transformed into a criminal action prosecuted by a private prosecutor. A strange figure, says Salazar, which concludes with a sentence of six months in prison in addition to the more than two years of house arrest.

The event was attended by Janeth Cuji Kichuwa Leadership, Moipa Nihua, Waorani leader from Orellana, patrici Salazar, abg FDA