We want you to watch an incredible video.
Before Chevron’s annual meeting a few days ago, Amazon community leader Donald Moncayo sent a powerful message to CEO Mike Wirth that shows the horrific details of the toxic waste pits Chevron gouged out of the jungle floor in Ecuador when it operated there in the 1970s and 1980s. Chevron left Ecuador over thirty years ago. But its waste pits continue to poison ancestral lands today.
Please watch this extraordinary video sent to Chevron's CEO Mike Wirth from community leader Donald Moncayo: 
You might not believe this, but Chevron left roughly 1,000 of these waste pits in Ecuador’s Amazon. They have never been cleaned up. And they will be there for hundreds of years poisoning the rainforest and its inhabitants if nothing is done.
Until the Indigenous peoples of the Amazon receive justice and the fossil fuel industry is held accountable for its destruction both in Ecuador and around the globe, our fight will not end. Will you help us build towards the next leg of our campaign by contributing $50 or more today?
(For those who cannot give that much but still want to help, please give what you can — even if it is $1. We treat all donations regardless of size with equal appreciation.)
After Steven helped Indigenous peoples and farmer communities win a $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron so they could restore their ecosystem, Chevron refused to pay. Instead, the company’s highest legal officer said Chevron would fight the Indigenous peoples “until hell freezes over” and then “fight it out on the ice.” It is our belief that this type of comment reflects a racist worldview at the highest levels of the company.
In the video, Donald notes a recent health evaluation showing more than 2,000 people in the area have died of cancer due to exposure to oil contamination. Hundreds of children have died from leukemia. In addition, the company has never funded a single health study to determine the extent of the harm it caused. The most maddening part is that Chevron has tried to claim that the toxic oil pits left behind are fine to be used for fishing and human consumption of water. This is just pure oil company gaslighting fueled by greed and arrogance.
It reminds us of local Indigenous leaders recounting stories of how in the 1970s Chevron engineers claimed that oil was medicinal, similar to milk and full of vitamins. This was obviously a bald-faced lie. Due to a lack of medical care and resources, most of those struggling with cancer receive no treatment while others are forced to travel hours and even days to find a specialist. Additionally, reports have found highly elevated rates of miscarriages in pregnant women.
During Chevron’s annual meeting in May, Chevron CEO Wirth dodged questions from shareholders calling him out over the company’s ecocide in Ecuador and other climate-related atrocities that according to a new study have produced $51 billion in liabilities owed to vulnerable communities. He also ignored Donald's video. In a video on Twitter, Rep. Rashida Tlaib asked Wirth when he was going to pay the bill for the company's legacy contamination.
We have asked that same question every day since Steven was illegally detained in a private Chevron prosecution in August 2019 and forced to spend almost three years at home or in prison. When is Chevron going to pay to clean up its "Amazon Chernobyl" in Ecuador?
Decades after Steven and others launched the campaign against Chevron, Steven’s clients – people who have lived in the Amazon for millennia but now see their ecosystem being poisoned – are continuing to deal with the aftermath, including struggling to find safe drinking water and medical care as well as trying to save their unique cultures from complete devastation.
We simply cannot allow Chevron to get away with what amounts to murder in Ecuador.
We need to keep up the pressure on CEO Wirth so that Chevron complies with court orders that it pay for the restoration of Indigenous ancestral lands in the Amazon. We must continue to work with Indigenous peoples to build a movement to hold Chevron accountable and to protect other Earth Defenders around the globe. Please contribute what you can now.
Steven is now in his sixth week of freedom working to lay the groundwork for a stepped-up campaign that will be announced in the coming days. He wanted us to tell you that you will be hearing from him soon about the exciting details. In the meantime, we hope we can count on your support.
Thank you,
The #FreeDonziger Team |
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Steven Donziger is a U.S. human rights attorney who helped communities in Ecuador’s Amazon win a historic multibillion-dollar pollution judgment against Chevron for the dumping of billions of gallons of cancer-causing oil waste onto Indigenous ancestral lands. Since the judgment issued in 2013, Chevron has used dozens of law firms and 2000 lawyers to carry out a demonization campaign targeting Steven to send a message of intimidation to all environmental advocates.
Donate NOW to help support Steven as he and the Ecuadorian communities continue their fight for corporate accountability, environmental justice, Indigenous rights, and Free Speech. DONATE NOW |
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