AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL DEMANDS THAT URGENT ACTION BE TAKEN TO PROTECT PLAINTIFFS’ TEAM IN THE CASE AGAINST THE CHEVRONTEXACO CORPORATION

Quito – Amnesty International solicits urgent action for the team working on behalf of the 30,000 Ecuadorians affected by the grave contamination created by Texaco during its 30 years of operation in the region, in which the corporation generated the worst oil-related environmental disaster in the world.  Human rights organizations, students, university professors and other diverse persons have manifested their solidarity with Plaintiffs’ cause sending hundreds of letters to the Ecuadorian government and to the offices of the Front for the Defense of the Amazon, the organization managing the case against the oil company.

The increase in hostilities against Plaintiffs’ team obligates Amnesty International, the most important human rights organization in the world, to solicit that urgent measures be taken to protect the legal team and other leaders supporting those affected by the corporation.  On April 21, a group of four men traveling in a new, gold truck, without plates and with tinted windows, assaulted a women coming to the home of press secretary for the Front for the Defense of the Amazon, Guadalupe de Heredia, confusing the visitor with the press secretary.  The victim suffered many wounds due to the excessive aggressiveness of the attack, and also had her laptop stolen in the confrontation.

One week later, Mrs. De Heredia was pursued and harassed by a car with the same characteristics – new, gold, without plates and with tinted windows – on the highway between Cumbayá and Quito, when the truck cornered her car against the curb.  Other drivers on the highway prevented the truck from driving De Heredia’s car off the road by honking and physically pressuring the vehicle to desist.

The following week the private legal offices of attorney Julio Prieto, who also works on the case, were burglarized by strangers who broke through a wooden door, two locks, and iron bars intended to protect the office.  The intruders entered the area of the office where the fax machines and computers were stored, but did not steal anything of value; clear evidence that the break-in was an act of intimidation.

Complaints regarding these incidents were filed with the competent authorities and were brought to the attention of the International Secretary of Amnesty International in London, who, given the gravity of the acts, requested that Ecuadorian authorities take urgent action to investigate these cases and protect Guadalupe de Heredia and her family, lawyers for the Plaintiffs, and other members of the team working on behalf of the aggrieved residents of the Amazon and in defense of national dignity against Texaco.

The International Secretary of Amnesty International has also requested that the precautionary measures ordered by the Interamerican Commission for Human Rights last December extend to all members of Plaintiffs’ team.

“These acts will not deter us in our fight for justice,” said Luis Yanza, legal coordinator for the case, “we will take precautions to protect our integrity, but we will continue onwards until Texaco cleans and remediates the contamination it left in Ecuador’s Amazon.”