Chevron’s Unethical Lobbying of Ecuador Government Revealed in Wikileaks Cables

Just days after Second Circuit Court of Appeals dissolved (link to yesterdays post) the injunction prohibiting the enforcement of multibillion judgment against Chevron; Wikileaks cables written by U.S officials exposed another attempt by the oil giant to illegally end the pollution lawsuit.

Wikileaks documents show that Chevron tried to manipulate Ecuadorian government to interfere with the lawsuit, knowing that such intervention is forbidden by the Ecuadorian Constitution and would be illegal.

Read Amazon Defense Coalition Press Release or Chevron Pit

Judge Kaplan’s Absurd Decisions

It seems like Judge Kaplan is confused over what his role in the Chevron trial is. Looking at his behavior, comments and rulings, you’d think he is representing Chevron. He is supposed to be impartial and make a fair decision whether the multibillion-dollar judgment against Chevron is enforceable or not. And most importantly, he is supposed to listen to everyone’s arguments. Instead, he decided to exclude the Ecuadorians’ lead lawyer Steven Donziger from the trial. Even though Donziger has been a key person in the historic pollution case for over 18 years, he is not allowed to be in the courtroom as crucial decisions are being made about his case.

Read more here and here

Judge Kaplan's Unacceptable Behavior

I wrote about Judge Lewis Kaplan a while ago. Chevron filed a lawsuit against Ecuadorians in an effort to block the enforcement of the $18 billion judgement that was awarded to them and Judge Kaplan is presiding over it. He is biased. He keeps making inappropriate comments towards the Ecuadorians referring to them as “so-called Lago Agrio plaintiffs” and "a number of indigenous peoples said to reside in the Amazon rainforest." and according to him the Ecuadorian lawsuit-one of the biggest environmental lawsuits ever, is just a "game" brought about by the "imagination of American lawyers" trying to solve the "balance of payments" problem of the United States. This is absolutely unacceptable!