Appeal court upholds award against Chevron

By Gareth Chetwynd Rio de Janeiro

 06 January 2012 01:44 GMT

An Ecuadorian appeal court has upheld an $18 billion award against Chevron relating to contamination of a large area of the Amazon rainforest during Texaco’s operations in the 1980s.

The lawsuit is backed by indigenous groups and settlers in the region around Lago Agrio, in northeastern Ecuador, supported by a coalition of non-governmental organisations, including the US-based NGOs Amazon Watch and Rainforest Action Network.

The NGOs said the ruling “once again proves that the company is responsible for deliberately dumping billions of gallons of toxic waste sludge into local streams and rivers, which thousands depend on for drinking, bathing, and fishing, and created a public health crisis in the rainforest region”.

Chevron denies the legitimacy of the ruling, claiming that the legal…

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