LEADERS FROM THE ECUADOREAN AMAZONIA OCCUPIED FOREIGN TRADE MINISTRY

LEADERS FROM THE ECUADOREAN AMAZONIA OCCUPIED FOREIGN TRADE MINISTRY Today, 7th July 2004, 30 leaders from different grassroots organizations affected by the oil company CHEVRON TEXACO, occupied the installations of the Foreign Trade Ministry. In 1993 these organizations suited Texaco in a New York Court. Ten years later, the case was returned into a small oil town in the Ecuadorian Amazonia. This fact has awoke a deep worry among the inhabitants of the Amazonía who have lived for more than 30 years affected by the environmental impacts due to the irresponsible and evil activities carried out Texaco during its operation in Ecuador. It is not possible that an environmental crime as serious as the one that Texaco committed in Ecuador remain in the impunity. Some weeks ago, ChevronTexaco presented an international arbitrage petition in New York, to transfer all the environmental responsibility of Texaco to the state owner company Petroecuador. It is believed that this arbitration is part of the pressures that United States is imposing Ecuador prior the signature of a Free Trade Agreement between USA and Ecuador This is the reason why the local amazonean leaders are occupying the offices of the Foreign Trade Ministry. They want to know whether the Minister, Ivonne Baki, has being involved in the Texaco case, obeying the pressures of the USA and not of the ecuadorian local people TEXACO NUNCA MAS