After nearly a decade of legal wrangling in US courts, the case returned to Ecuador, to the courtroom where Judge Alberto Guerra presided, flanked by a huge painting of Lady Justice in native garb against a backdrop of rivers, hills and forests, a toucan perched over her scales and a puma at her feet.

In the street outside, barred from the courthouse by a row of riot police, several hundred people — some in feathers, face paint and traditional garb — chanted slogans against Texaco and listened to the court proceedings over a loudspeaker. Not all were convinced that justice would be done.

"It’s been 10 years and we’ve never been able to talk face to face with the company," said Elias Piaguaje, a Secoya leader who is one of the plaintiffs. "Look what’s happened today — they’re all inside, and we’re out here in the street shouting. To me, it’s an insult."

Between 1971 and 1992, a consortium involving Texaco and state-owned PetroEcuador pumped 1.5 billion barrels of oil from the area. The plaintiffs argue that the company improperly disposed of 18.5 billion gallons of wastewater, contaminating soil and the streams and rivers on which at least 500,000 people — including some 30,000 members of indigenous communities — depend for drinking water and irrigation.

For most of the day, the company’s lawyers argued that the case should be thrown out because ChevronTexaco was not responsible for the actions of its former subsidiaries and because it had already invested US$40 million in cleanup operations that were approved.

The company also challenged the retroactive application of a 1999 hydrocarbons law that holds companies to stricter cleanup standards, but the plaintiffs’ lawyer, Alberto Wray, disagreed."We’re talking about damages that are still occurring, because the toxic substances are still present and are still causing contamination," he said.

As for the cleanup efforts, lawyer Steven Donziger, who represented the plaintiffs in the US court case and is serving as an adviser in the Ecuador case, likened it to "applying makeup." He estimated that the cost of repairing the damage from the more than 600 waste pits would exceed US$1 billion. Other experts have estimated that the cost could be five or six times that amount.

"The cleanup that was done was a disaster, because they only covered up (the waste). Now the damage is even greater, because it’s filtering into the water sources. It may be less visible, but it’s more intense and more serious," said the Rev. José Miguel Goldáraz, a Spanish Capuchin priest who has worked in the area for 30 years.

Although the suit seeks cleanup and does not mention a specific dollar amount, money is one of the points of contention. While Ricardo Veiga, ChevronTexaco’s vice president for products in Latin America, pointed out that the company had provided US$5 million for community development projects in some of the affected zones, some local residents saw those payments as hush money.

After receiving the funds, several local governments and indigenous organizations withdrew from the lawsuit. "The fact that Texaco has given money to local governments does not affect the plaintiffs’ right to live in an environment free of contamination," Wray said. Goldáraz was more blunt, saying, "Oil has corrupted (local) leaders."

During the demonstrations outside the courthouse, people living near the waste pits told of family members falling ill or dying. Goldáraz said that a study carried out by the Capuchin mission found high rates of cancer and stomach and skin problems.

The judge, who has lived in Lago Agrio for six years, seemed sympathetic to the plaintiffs’ complaints. "I know the situation," he said. "There is pollution. Sometimes even I" — he left he sentence hanging, but scratched at the skin of his neck — "because of the water." At the end of the initial hearing, Guerra gave both parties six working days to present documents and witnesses. He and court investigators will then sift through the documents and inspect the affected area. "I know that the parties are going to request the inspection of about 100 wells," he said, adding that he expected to issue a ruling within four to six months.

"This is a historic case because it is going to set a precedent not only in the legal sense, but also in the human sense," he said. "To me, nature is like a pregnant woman. No one can put toxic substances and pollutants into the womb of a pregnant woman. We have the responsibility to care for her."

Whatever Guerra’s verdict, an appeal is likely. The case could eventually reach the Supreme Court. If the plaintiffs lose, Donziger said, they could return to US courts. While Guerra said he did not expect the Texaco case to end up on his desk, he added that he believed the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals made the right decision in ruling that it should be tried first in Ecuador. The US court ruled that the Ecuadoran court’s decision would be binding on the company in the United States (LP, June 18, 2001).

Meanwhile, not far from Lago Agrio, the Kichwa people in the community of Sarayacu have been trying to stop oil prospecting on their lands. On Oct. 16, lawyers presented the case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. Government officials have threatened to send in the military to enable the Argentine Compañía General de Combustibles (CGC) to go ahead with seismic testing (LP, March 26, 2003).

For the indigenous people of Sucumbíos, the issue goes beyond cleaning up toxic waste. Although their territories are legally recognized, the government reserves the right to grant concessions for subsoil resources like oil, gas and minerals (LP, April 22, 2002).

According to Piaguaje, the communities see none of the wealth that those resources represent."It was the government that negotiated with the company, so the government should pay us and give us the wells that are producing," he said. "The underlying problem is one of ancestral indigenous philosophy against national and foreign laws.

The real problem is social cultural and philosophical – it’s a matter of world view. All I want is to be able to sit down and discuss conditions on equal terms."

-Latin American Press

Project makes it possible for children to stop scavenging and return to school

Carolina, 10, has a smile as white as her apron and above all, a lot of fatigue. "Today I woke up very early to come to school," she said, obviously content. And it not hard to understand why.

Born in a poor home in which her mother and her seven siblings eke out a living as scavengers of recyclable goods until recently going to school was just a dream. "Since I used to go out every night to scavenge and I would go to sleep very late, I missed school a lot and when I did go I didn’t understand anything. Now it’s different. I come to school rested and I can learn," she said.

Carolina is part of a project of the non-governmental organization Alma Mater Indoamericana (AMI) called "From garbage to dignity." With financing from the International Labor Organization (ILO), 650 children scavengers or cartoneros of José C. Paz, Tigre and San Miguel — three of the poorest areas of Buenos Aires province — have been able to return to the schools they had attended only sporadically or had deserted altogether. And most importantly, they have been to able to get off the streets.

According to figures from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), in Argentina there are 1.5 million working children, many of whom collect cardboard and other recyclable goods (LP, Feb. 26, 2003).

For this reason, the project — which today includes 240 families most of them made up of single women with an average of four children — represent a ray of hope.

"The idea is very simple: we generate enterprises that give work to the parents, and in return they commit that their children will stop working and will go back to school," said Karina González, executive director of AMI.

The star of these productive initiatives is "El Niño" dishwashing detergent, produced and sold by mothers and a few fathers of the young cartoneros. Once in the program, they receive training and a monthly salary of around $170 by pledging that their children will stop collecting recyclable good and return to school.

The ingredients for the detergent are donated by the United Nations and it is produced in a schoolroom. It is sold among neighbors, although some commercial establishments have started stocking it and an important supermarket chain has shown interest in the product.

"Although it is the best known, this is not the only enterprise underway," Gonzalez said. "Some other families are making pastas or dough, weaving baskets or receiving a loan to start a business. In all cases, they are projects that can generate income for the families and are sustainable over time."

The program began in November 2002 and currently operates in these three areas of Buenos Aires province that dramatically reflect the social and economic crisis that exploded in December 2001 (LP, Jan. 14, 2002).

Even in these neighborhoods, the public school continues to be an important factor in containing the crisis. There, children eat what is sometimes their only meal of the day and they also feel protected in a hostile environment in which crime and drugs are everyday occurrences.

"Children who scavenge for recyclable goods are badly fed, they get sick from being in constant contact with garbage and in addition they are exposed to all kinds of dangers,"said Graciella Della Giovanna, principal of School No. 15 in José C. Paz. "And because they get tired, they don’t attend school and show up only to eat. That’s why when they proposed this idea to me, I was so enthusiastic that I even made available some classrooms where the parents could work. Rather, where the mothers could work, because there are hardly any fathers."

Nevertheless, putting the children back in school required more effort. For this reason, supplementary classes were held during the summer vacation so that the children who were going back to school could be at the same level as their classmates, said Cuban teacher Félix Muñoz, head of the Education Department of AMI.

Teachers were also trained in new methodologies, vital for knowing how to educate these children with specific needs and rhythms of learning. "The class should attend to the particularities and differences, interests and motivations of each child," Muñoz said.

"If all of this is not taken in account, then the class only benefits a few. In this case, there would be neither learning nor equality." The families that join the program receive sacks of food to combat malnutrition and children also visit the dentist to prevent the loss of teeth when they become adults.

Going to the movies, the theater and amusement parks are also an important component of the program. In addition, on the weekend children learn how to use computers. Mothers cannot contain their pride when they tell how their children are learning to fight with computers.

"I am very happy. This is going to help them a lot," said Patricia Sosa, mother of six children. Illiterate, she still makes a living from scavenging although she has started to produce detergent, a project in which she places enormous expectations. "I couldn’t study and for this reason I want them to be able to."

During his recent visit to Nicaraguam Secretary of State Colin Powell requested that the Government of Nicaragua destroy the SAM-7 missiles that they have had since the US presence in Nicaragua during the Contra uprising. "These missiles have cost the Nicaraguan Armed Forces too much money and I hope they are destroyed in the near future," stated Powell as he met with Enrique Bolaños at the Presidential Palace .

Though Powell was vocal about the destruction of these missiles, which had been left in the country during the time of the US participation in the contra led attacks on the Sandinistas, he refrained from mentioning how the United States would collaborate with Nicaragua’s efforts to restore peace and security. "Nicaragua struggles with terrorism and drug trafficking on a daily basis," states María José Uriarte, from La Prensa. "Powell has not shown how the US will help us."

When asked why the US was not helping Nicaragua more with these problems, Powell said that "aside from drug trafficking and terrorism, his greatest fear was a possible war among the Central American nations." For Nicaraguans, this answer did not suffice in showing how the United States would make up for the violence they brought to the country during their 1980’s Cold War in Central America.

-La Prensa: www.laprensa.com.ni