Chevron Resorts to Bully Tactics

It appears more bad behavior is exuding from multinational corporation oil giant Chevron. It seems that the company destroyed the Amazon rain forest in the backyard of Ecuador in its eternal hunt for profits. Now the 30,000 residents living in the backyard are suing Chevron to the tune of $12 billion in damages for dumping vast amounts of toxic waste into the Amazon and surrounding area. And Chevron's response?

According to Michael Isikoff, an investigative reporter for Newsweek magazine, Chevron has hired lobbyists Wayne Berman, John Breaux and Trent Lott to pressure the Bush Administration into imposing economic sanctions against the country of Ecuador if the suit isn't dropped. To top it off, a "spokesperson" from Chevron has been quoted as saying, "We can't let little countries screw around with big companies like this." Excuse me???

This is exactly the kind of behavior that gives the U.S. a major black eye. How dare a corporation go in, destroy the land and waters of another country, and blithely walk away from it as if nothing happened! It's Chevron's mess, now they need to clean it up - to its original pristine condition.

The Government should look the corporation straight in the eye and tell them that major economic sanctions will be imposed on them if they don't restore the land they've destroyed and adequately compensate the population who have suffered from the toxic chemicals in any manner that is needed. Furthermore, Chevron will restore all the lands around the world that they've willfully contaminated and compensate the people affected. Finally, use environmentally safe procedures on any future exploration/drilling/refining activities...or else.

I believe that the name of the corporate bureaucrat who made the "screw with us" statement should be outed, his name and face plastered all over the Internet. He just doesn't get it. He, along with the three lobbyists - "Curly, Larry and Moe" - who don't give a rat's a** about human decency, should be forced to go to Ecuador and aid "hands on" in the cleanup for however long it takes. Now that would stop these "guns for hire" lobbyists taking up causes with such obvious amoral agendas - all in the name of money.

If the administration actually threatens (aka "blackmails") Ecuador, I hope President Correa is able to tell them to take a flying leap.

Speaking of President Correa, I loved what he said to the American government after they asked him to renew the lease the U.S. had with them for an in-country military base: "We'll renew the base on one condition: that they let us put a base in Miami -- an Ecuadorean base. If there's no problem having foreign soldiers on a country's soil, surely they'll let us have an Ecuadorean base in the United States." Now that's my kind of guy!

The U.S. is now looking at other countries for its base.

I want to thank Amy Goodman's in-depth interview on "Democracy Now!" for steering me onto this story. You can read the interview here.