WEBVTT - S5 Ep3 | The Trial 0:00:10.240 --> 0:00:12.680 When we left off last time, it was two thousand 0:00:12.680 --> 0:00:16.200 and three, and the Ecuadorian plaintiffs had just agreed to 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:21.520 refile their case against Chevron Texico down in Ecuador. At 0:00:21.560 --> 0:00:25.079 the center of this case were these waste pits, unlined 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:29.400 pits where Texico would dump toxic wastewater from oil drilling. 0:00:29.600 --> 0:00:32.400 When the case was first filed in nineteen ninety three 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:35.880 in New York, Texico said it had cleaned up its 0:00:35.920 --> 0:00:40.760 fair share and anything left was Petro Ecuador's mess. The 0:00:40.800 --> 0:00:43.959 plaintiffs said the cleanup was no good and that Texico 0:00:44.040 --> 0:00:48.040 had overseen all operations and should clean it all up, 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:50.800 that it should be based on who did what, not 0:00:51.200 --> 0:00:55.080 who got what percentage of the profits. Ten years later, 0:00:55.160 --> 0:00:59.920 the arguments hadn't changed, but the defendant had. Chevron's acqui 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:02.880 position of Texaco was complete in two thousand and one, 0:01:03.000 --> 0:01:06.399 and it had inherited this case as part of that acquisition. 0:01:06.880 --> 0:01:07.560 Today we're going to. 0:01:07.600 --> 0:01:10.559 Look at what happened next as the trial got underway 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:29.600 in Ecuador. I want to tell you about one of 0:01:29.600 --> 0:01:35.160 my favorite podcasts. It's called Floodlins from the Atlantic. In 0:01:35.200 --> 0:01:38.360 this year of crisis, it's worth remembering that the country 0:01:38.360 --> 0:01:43.080 has been through a lot of big extreme weather disasters before, 0:01:43.360 --> 0:01:49.440 and history often repeats itself. Floodlines is about Hurricane Katrina 0:01:49.680 --> 0:01:52.520 in New Orleans. It follows the lives of four people 0:01:52.560 --> 0:01:55.840 who lived through the flooding and its aftermath, and it 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:00.520 shows how government failures and misinformation led to tragedies beyond 0:02:00.520 --> 0:02:04.200 what the hurricane caused. Host Van Nukirk shows what we 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:08.120 can learn today from that disaster fifteen years ago. Listen 0:02:08.200 --> 0:02:16.840 to Floodlines wherever you get your podcasts. A bunch of 0:02:16.880 --> 0:02:19.400 people told us that if we wanted to understand what 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:22.000 the oil pollution in the Amazon really looked like, we 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.400 had to talk to Donald Moncayo. He was born and 0:02:25.480 --> 0:02:28.040 raised right at the epicenter. 0:02:31.080 --> 0:02:35.359 Minore Donald Moncayo, and. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.480 He was born about two hundred meters from the second 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:45.760 well Texico drilled in the Amazons in nineteen sixty seven. 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:04.320 I'm Ammy Westervelt and this is Drilled Season five, La 0:03:04.360 --> 0:03:18.920 Lucha Longa. This is episode three, the Trial. If you 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.120 haven't listened to episodes one and two, go back and 0:03:22.160 --> 0:03:24.560 do that. This is one of those seasons you're going 0:03:24.639 --> 0:03:27.080 to have to listen to the episodes in order to 0:03:27.200 --> 0:03:27.720 keep up. 0:03:29.760 --> 0:03:31.200 All right. 0:03:31.639 --> 0:03:36.720 American attorney Stephen Donziger would partner up with Ecuadorian attorneys 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.200 who would file the case in the courts there. When 0:03:40.200 --> 0:03:42.800 the case started kicking off in Ecuador in two thousand 0:03:42.800 --> 0:03:45.800 and three, Donald Moncayo was the guy who would lead 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:49.080 court officials and any visiting press on what the plaintiffs 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:53.920 called the quote unquote toxic tour, showing them abandoned waste 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:57.280 pits and pools of oil. People who took that tour 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.800 would have heard him say something like this. 0:04:01.480 --> 0:04:08.160 Thing too toxico dosuecos cannot be memento. 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.680 In short, all the toxic waste was released into these 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:15.240 unlined pits. Also, they put in a curved tube so 0:04:15.360 --> 0:04:17.880 that the pit would not overflow and the oil would 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.040 settle on either side. They called these tubes. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:30.600 Goose necks yelci and porss estavan dirihidos asia rios law. 0:04:30.560 --> 0:04:34.960 And one of these goose necks were directed towards rivers, lagoons, 0:04:35.120 --> 0:04:38.680 or streams, so all that toxic waste are pumping out 0:04:38.839 --> 0:04:42.760 would disappear into the lagoons, rivers, or streams. 0:04:44.800 --> 0:04:52.120 No sotros in la the loriosqui, so those of us 0:04:52.200 --> 0:04:53.680 who were at the lower part of the river. 0:04:54.120 --> 0:04:57.160 We had no drinkable water, and still today there's no 0:04:57.360 --> 0:05:05.600 drinkable water in the countryside. When Stephen Donzeger had first 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:08.160 gone to Ecuador in nineteen ninety three to help with 0:05:08.279 --> 0:05:10.640 research for this case, he saw a lot of the 0:05:10.720 --> 0:05:13.240 things that Mancayo talks about, and it was. 0:05:13.360 --> 0:05:18.360 Just almost unimaginable the degree of creation the open air 0:05:18.480 --> 0:05:21.880 toxic waste pits that have been deliberately galged out of 0:05:21.920 --> 0:05:22.440 the jungle. 0:05:23.400 --> 0:05:26.400 Also in nineteen ninety three, the original case was filed 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:30.239 against Texico in New York. That same year, the US 0:05:30.640 --> 0:05:34.880 signed a bilateral investment treaty with Ecuador. These treaties basically 0:05:34.960 --> 0:05:38.000 exist to protect US companies that are doing business in 0:05:38.080 --> 0:05:43.000 other countries and to boost American exports. One important thing 0:05:43.080 --> 0:05:47.599 they provide is access to international arbitration, a separate system 0:05:47.720 --> 0:05:52.440 that allows the parties to circumvent local courts. Marcos Oriana 0:05:52.680 --> 0:05:55.480 is an expert on this system. He teaches law at 0:05:55.520 --> 0:05:59.720 American University and is the EWAN Special Rapporteur on Toxics 0:05:59.800 --> 0:06:01.040 and Human Rights. 0:06:01.560 --> 0:06:05.839 The international investment arbitration can be described as a private 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:12.080 system of adjudication that decides on the propriety of governmental measures, 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:17.840 but it lacks the safeguards for accountability and transparency that 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:23.880 characterized constitutional democracies governed by the rule of law. If 0:06:23.880 --> 0:06:27.280 we look back in time. In its origins, and international 0:06:27.320 --> 0:06:33.640 investment arbitration came to replace colonial system colonial systems of 0:06:33.880 --> 0:06:35.800 extraction of domination. 0:06:36.560 --> 0:06:40.480 In other words, once it was companies rather than countries 0:06:40.839 --> 0:06:44.480 that became the colonizers in the world, they needed a 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:45.440 new system. 0:06:46.520 --> 0:06:51.640 When the former colonies acquired independence in the advent of decolonization, 0:06:52.279 --> 0:06:56.400 largely after the Second World War and the advent of 0:06:56.480 --> 0:07:01.039 the United Nations, the former imperial power needed a legal 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:06.080 system to protect the economic interests of their corporations, and 0:07:06.440 --> 0:07:12.600 international investment arbitration offered such an alternative. Today, in this 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:16.000 current day of age, many in civil society see the 0:07:16.960 --> 0:07:24.240 arbitration regime as yet another tool of corporate globalization. And 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:27.720 this is because when governments regulate in the public interest, 0:07:28.000 --> 0:07:32.400 they become the targets of corporations that utilize the arbitration 0:07:32.640 --> 0:07:36.000 system to challenge those acts of authority. 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:40.040 The US Ecuador Investment Treaty went into effect in nineteen 0:07:40.120 --> 0:07:42.480 ninety seven, so by the time this case that was 0:07:42.560 --> 0:07:46.640 originally filed against Texaco in New York in nineteen ninety three, 0:07:47.160 --> 0:07:52.040 was refiled against Chevron in Ecuador in two thousand and three. 0:07:52.400 --> 0:07:56.640 The system Oriana describes was very much in effect. On 0:07:56.760 --> 0:08:00.680 top of that, Lucio Gutierrez was president. Jets had been 0:08:00.720 --> 0:08:05.040 elected as something of an anti corporate revolutionary, but within 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:07.520 the first few months of his presidency he had become 0:08:07.840 --> 0:08:12.680 very protrayed and particularly cozy with the United States. None 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.200 of that voted well for the indigenous plaintiffs seeking compensation 0:08:16.520 --> 0:08:19.080 for the damage that had been done in the Amazon. 0:08:19.560 --> 0:08:22.240 In two thousand and two, the Appellate Court in New 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.960 York had ruled that the case against Texaco, which was 0:08:26.080 --> 0:08:31.120 now Chevron Texico, should be tried in Ecuador. But the 0:08:31.200 --> 0:08:35.040 New York court said any final ruling and financial penalty 0:08:35.240 --> 0:08:40.520 imposed against Chevron Texico would be enforceable in the United States. 0:08:41.320 --> 0:08:45.400 We filed and there was a hearing very first day. 0:08:46.120 --> 0:08:52.160 You show up and both sides present their case or 0:08:52.240 --> 0:08:55.679 their theory of the case the very first day, and 0:08:55.960 --> 0:09:02.559 on that day I'll never forget Texico. Chevron's lawyer, local lawyer, 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.520 his name was A daffel kyehas been with the company 0:09:07.600 --> 0:09:12.479 for years and years. Read their response to our lawsuit, 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:15.880 every word of it. It must have taken him hours, 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:20.360 you know. And that told me two things. One is, 0:09:20.440 --> 0:09:23.680 their entire strategy was obstruction and delay, Like you don't 0:09:23.720 --> 0:09:26.240 need to read every word of a one hundred page document, 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:30.439 you just could have summarized it. And number two is 0:09:30.760 --> 0:09:35.319 a main defense was that they were denying that the 0:09:35.600 --> 0:09:42.040 Ecuadorian courts had jurisdiction because they were chevron and even 0:09:42.080 --> 0:09:45.520 though they had bought Texico, it was Texico that did it, 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:49.760 not them. So they had agreed in the US as 0:09:49.800 --> 0:09:53.200 a condition of getting the case out of US courts 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:56.560 and avoiding a jury trial, they had agreed they would 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.679 accept jurisdiction in Ecuador. And the first thing they did 0:09:59.760 --> 0:10:02.880 on the first day of the trial is to claim 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:05.720 the case should be dismissed because of a lack of jurisdiction. 0:10:06.360 --> 0:10:09.679 And Holy Moses, I mean I just couldn't believe it. 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.880 I mean maybe I was naive, but like, how do 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.480 you argue one thing in one place and then you 0:10:15.559 --> 0:10:18.040 go to that other court where you're bound by your 0:10:18.320 --> 0:10:21.120 promise and you just try to switch it. 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:24.320 On the first day, the request for dismissal was denied 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.080 and the trial got underway in two thousand and three. 0:10:27.679 --> 0:10:30.439 Trials in Ecuador work a lot differently than they do 0:10:30.559 --> 0:10:34.120 in the US. They run according to the civil law system, 0:10:34.440 --> 0:10:38.160 also sometimes called the Roman system, whereas the US got 0:10:38.240 --> 0:10:41.880 its legal system called the common law system from the UK. 0:10:42.280 --> 0:10:45.360 The key difference lies in jury trials. We call up 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:50.040 Alejandro Godo, an expert on Latin American law, to explain well. 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:54.640 One aspect of American exceptionalism, which I think is truly exceptional, 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:59.280 is the jury system in non criminal cases, in civil 0:10:59.360 --> 0:11:02.760 cases in the Chevron case. Even England, which is another 0:11:02.880 --> 0:11:05.720 country from where the United States copy the Jurish system, 0:11:05.960 --> 0:11:08.800 abolished it in the nineteenth century and there are no 0:11:08.920 --> 0:11:12.240 more jeurry civil cases juris civil cases in England. 0:11:12.440 --> 0:11:15.720 The initial hearing in the Chevron trial in Ecuador only 0:11:15.880 --> 0:11:19.760 lasted six days. Both sides presented their case directly to 0:11:19.880 --> 0:11:23.280 a judge. But in Ecuador it's the judge's responsibility to 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:26.600 figure out the truth. In legal cases, to investigate figure 0:11:26.679 --> 0:11:29.839 things out, and that can take months or years. We 0:11:29.960 --> 0:11:32.640 had Donziger walk us through that first day in court 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:34.800 in Lago Agrille, so you. 0:11:34.800 --> 0:11:37.720 Know, I'll never forget the first day of the trial 0:11:37.800 --> 0:11:40.240 in Ecuador, just like I'll never forget my first trip, 0:11:40.520 --> 0:11:44.800 you know, in nineteen ninety three. It was the first day. 0:11:44.880 --> 0:11:50.319 The trial was in in October, but the first day 0:11:50.440 --> 0:11:54.800 was really important because the effected communities, the indigenous groups. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.320 There's five indigenous groups that were part of the lawsuit 0:11:57.440 --> 0:12:00.720 and a lot of other non indigenous Amazon community They 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.640 organized to come in from all over the surrounding you know, 0:12:04.800 --> 0:12:10.040 Amazon rainforest, you know, by canoe and bus and walking, 0:12:10.320 --> 0:12:14.000 and you know, however they could get to this town 0:12:14.400 --> 0:12:16.560 where the trial was going to be held. The town's 0:12:16.600 --> 0:12:21.199 called Lago Agrio, which has so much symbolic importance because 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:24.439 the only reason Lago Augrio exists is because that's the 0:12:24.520 --> 0:12:28.839 place Texico first found oil in nineteen sixty seven. 0:12:29.559 --> 0:12:32.360 There were very few people in the courtroom initially in 0:12:32.480 --> 0:12:36.080 the morning, which Donziger thought was strange. He thought maybe 0:12:36.120 --> 0:12:39.040 the guards had scared some of the plaintiffs off, or 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:41.520 maybe they just weren't used to being able to go 0:12:41.679 --> 0:12:42.520 into the courtroom. 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:46.679 It was a very kind of wild West town and 0:12:46.800 --> 0:12:52.640 that's where the trial was convening, in a building it 0:12:52.800 --> 0:12:55.480 was like a commercial building that was rented out by 0:12:55.520 --> 0:13:00.440 the local court to have a court there. People had 0:13:00.480 --> 0:13:03.080 come in from all over the Amazon and they'd organized 0:13:03.080 --> 0:13:07.000 this big march and there were pictures and signs, hostsia 0:13:07.080 --> 0:13:11.120 and everyone was dressed up in their traditional clothing. I 0:13:11.200 --> 0:13:15.000 got to the court and to the building that housed 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:18.480 the court. The courtroom was upstairs, maybe three flights of stairs, 0:13:19.200 --> 0:13:21.680 and the first thing I saw was these arm guards. 0:13:21.720 --> 0:13:24.800 They looked like swat teams from the military that were 0:13:24.840 --> 0:13:29.160 standing guard outside the court. And as the morning wore 0:13:29.280 --> 0:13:33.400 on and the Chevron lawyer Ka has started reading this 0:13:33.679 --> 0:13:39.199 really boring opposition that just started to take hours, I 0:13:39.520 --> 0:13:41.719 was like, wait a second, you know, I can't wait 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:43.920 for there to be a lunch break, because I'm going 0:13:44.000 --> 0:13:45.800 down to the street and I'm going to bring everyone 0:13:45.880 --> 0:13:52.600 up into court and probably around I don't know, eleven 0:13:52.760 --> 0:13:55.719 thirty in the morning, you know, late morning, when we're 0:13:55.960 --> 0:13:59.920 soon about to break. I suddenly hear this like right 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:05.720 chant from the street, you know, you know, all sorts 0:14:05.760 --> 0:14:09.160 of chants and noise, and it was like the crescendo. 0:14:09.280 --> 0:14:28.680 It was like building into a crescendo, but you could 0:14:28.720 --> 0:14:32.200 hear the noise rising and rising, and it made me 0:14:32.320 --> 0:14:34.960 feel so good because I knew exactly what it was. 0:14:35.080 --> 0:14:39.640 I know it was the people affected after decades of abuse, 0:14:40.880 --> 0:14:43.920 were coming to assert themselves and kind of let it 0:14:44.000 --> 0:14:57.800 all out. And by then, I mean, there had to 0:14:57.840 --> 0:15:00.920 be hundreds, maybe a thousand, two thousand people on this 0:15:01.080 --> 0:15:04.760 little street, this dirt street, right in front of the courthouse, 0:15:04.800 --> 0:15:07.520 and they were standing on trucks and there were microphones. 0:15:08.560 --> 0:15:12.720 I started talking to some of the people who had traveled, 0:15:13.040 --> 0:15:16.400 you know, from their ancestral lands to this town, and 0:15:16.480 --> 0:15:20.800 I'm like, why aren't you guys in the courtroom come 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:25.440 up with you? Come up with me. And many of 0:15:25.520 --> 0:15:28.320 them looked at me and they're like, oh, we can 0:15:28.400 --> 0:15:34.720 go into court. I'm like, yeah, it's your country, it's 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:40.160 your court, it's your case. Yes you can come. When 0:15:40.200 --> 0:15:42.200 we went back in, I marched up the stairs with 0:15:42.640 --> 0:15:46.080 you know, who knows how many people behind me, Digenous 0:15:46.200 --> 0:15:49.920 women who traditional clothing and all sorts of people, and 0:15:50.040 --> 0:15:53.280 we just packed the hell out of that courtroom. And 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:57.040 you know, it was really an emotional day. 0:15:58.560 --> 0:16:02.040 If Chevron had entertained ideas that this case would move 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:05.560 to Ecuador and be forgotten, Donziger's media savvy took care 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.800 of that. Reporters flew in from all over the world, 0:16:09.040 --> 0:16:12.720 met with Donziger, and the Ecuadorian attorneys took the toxic 0:16:12.800 --> 0:16:16.040 tour with Moncayo and sent reports back home. Here's a 0:16:16.080 --> 0:16:19.120 clip from NPR's All Things Considered as the trial got 0:16:19.240 --> 0:16:21.640 underway in October two thousand and three. 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:25.760 In northern Ecuador, a trial is underway against Chevron Texico. 0:16:26.040 --> 0:16:27.480 The civil suit accuses the. 0:16:27.480 --> 0:16:31.360 Company of contaminating the groundwater of a formerly pristine area 0:16:31.440 --> 0:16:33.560 of the Amazon. The Ecuadorians, who. 0:16:33.640 --> 0:16:36.600 After that initial six day trial ended the court and 0:16:36.720 --> 0:16:39.960 both legal teams brought in various experts to conduct field 0:16:40.040 --> 0:16:44.720 investigations to determine the extent of contamination in the areas 0:16:44.720 --> 0:16:48.320 where the plaintiffs lived, and whether or not the cleanup 0:16:48.400 --> 0:16:51.800 that Texico had done back in the nineties was sufficient. 0:16:52.920 --> 0:16:56.360 The court gathered various other pieces of information, too, including 0:16:56.520 --> 0:16:59.720 historical information on whether or not it really was common 0:16:59.760 --> 0:17:03.880 presscice in the oil industry to dump wastewater in unlined pits. 0:17:04.240 --> 0:17:08.320 Tim Lagonegro, the geologist and longtime oil industry worker we 0:17:08.440 --> 0:17:11.359 heard from last time, was pretty emphatic that it was not. 0:17:11.920 --> 0:17:17.200 You would never put wastewater in an unlined pit. Never. 0:17:18.359 --> 0:17:24.320 Everyone knows that it's toxic water putting that into a rainforest. 0:17:25.440 --> 0:17:31.160 They had tarps in those days, too, impermeable vinyl sheeting. 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:34.200 It's just normal, has been forever. 0:17:34.840 --> 0:17:36.840 But given how long the case had been going on 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:39.560 by this point, and how much time had passed since 0:17:39.680 --> 0:17:43.280 Texico had left the country, the trial dragged on and 0:17:43.440 --> 0:17:47.280 on one year than it was two years, three years. 0:17:47.920 --> 0:17:50.880 In December two thousand and six, more than three years 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.040 after the trial had started, in Lago Agrio, Chevron filed 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:56.800 a complaint against the government of Ecuador for failing to 0:17:56.960 --> 0:18:00.720 resolve cases quickly. That complaint was in reference to a 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.159 different set of cases, complaints that Texico had brought up 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:07.080 back in the nineties, but the message was clear, speed 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:09.960 it up already, or will see you in arbitration. On 0:18:10.080 --> 0:18:12.680 top of all of the obvious reasons Chevron may have 0:18:12.800 --> 0:18:17.280 wanted to officially complain about the Ecuadorian court system, there 0:18:17.400 --> 0:18:20.680 was a major change around this time in the country's leadership. 0:18:22.359 --> 0:18:28.320 Lalo Rodos, Rafael Forrea, ALIANAI. 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:34.680 In the run up to the election of Rafael Correa 0:18:34.840 --> 0:18:38.119 in November two thousand and six, various business analysts and 0:18:38.320 --> 0:18:41.280 think tanks in the US warned that if he were elected, 0:18:41.440 --> 0:18:45.480 Ecuador would go the way of Venezuela and Bolivia, turning 0:18:45.600 --> 0:18:50.080 against US corporate interests. Among other concerns was the fact 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.439 that Corea was staunchly against extending the bilateral investment treaty 0:18:54.520 --> 0:18:57.399 with the US, which was set to expire at the 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.560 end of two thousand and six. Even fairly mainstream media 0:19:01.600 --> 0:19:04.840 outlets like NPR played into the idea that Korea was 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:10.000 the scary second coming of Chavez. Yesterday's balloting reduced a 0:19:10.080 --> 0:19:13.720 field of thirteen to two men, one a banana tycoon, 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.640 the other a left wing supporter of Venezuela's president Uga Chavez. 0:19:17.800 --> 0:19:21.120 Alva and Noboa, who rested control of his family's banana 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.240 business to become one of Ecuador's wealthiest men, held a 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.200 slight lead through the night. Running a close second was 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.040 Rafael Coorea, a former economy minister who challenged the political orthodoxy, 0:19:32.240 --> 0:19:35.720 advocating cheap credit for the poor and renegotiation of all 0:19:35.920 --> 0:19:37.240 foreign oil contracts. 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:40.720 By this point, Texico had long since pulled out of Ecuador, 0:19:40.840 --> 0:19:44.080 and Chevron wasn't doing business there either. In fact, they 0:19:44.200 --> 0:19:47.879 never had, but still a president that was promising to 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:51.320 renegotiate foreign oil contracts. That's not really what you want 0:19:51.359 --> 0:19:55.160 when you're a US oil company defending yourself in Ecuador's courts. 0:20:09.720 --> 0:20:10.119 It would be. 0:20:10.080 --> 0:20:14.000 Another five years before the judge and Ecuador would rule 0:20:14.119 --> 0:20:17.480 on the case against Chevron, and a lot would happen 0:20:17.680 --> 0:20:30.120 in the meantime. Next time on Drilled, we hear from 0:20:30.160 --> 0:20:32.080 the other attorneys in this case. 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:34.879 He's talking about mobilizing to put people in front of 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:37.280 the courthouse, the thousand people in front of the courthouse, 0:20:37.320 --> 0:20:39.840 to pressure and he's saying, literally, we have to pressure 0:20:39.880 --> 0:20:40.200 the judge. 0:20:40.240 --> 0:20:41.520 We have to make him know who's boss. 0:20:48.200 --> 0:20:52.719 Chevron's attorneys get indicted, Accusations of fraud and bribery fly 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:59.280 on both sides, and an incredible international pr war kicks 0:20:59.359 --> 0:20:59.840 into gear. 0:21:00.160 --> 0:21:02.920 The Sequoias took us to their community hut, where we 0:21:03.040 --> 0:21:07.200 saw the driving force behind the suit, Stephen Donzinger, a 0:21:07.320 --> 0:21:12.560 New York lawyer, far from home. These are people who 0:21:12.960 --> 0:21:16.480 never believed they had a right to sue an American 0:21:16.560 --> 0:21:18.000 company in their own court system. 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:20.520 Yeah, but you know what Chevron says. They say that 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:23.800 this is being driven by a new York plaintiffs lawyer, 0:21:24.040 --> 0:21:30.639 and they don't mean that as a compliment. Drilled is 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:35.000 an original production of the Critical Frequency Podcast Network. The 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:38.280 show was created by me Amy Westervelt. This season, my 0:21:38.400 --> 0:21:42.399 co reporter is Karen Savage. Our editor is Julia Ritchie. 0:21:42.720 --> 0:21:47.240 Sound design and mixing by Mark Busch, original score by 0:21:47.400 --> 0:21:53.160 b Beeman, additional production help from Sarah Ventry. Special thanks 0:21:53.440 --> 0:21:56.800 to Larissa Ikeda. Thanks to NPR for some of the 0:21:56.880 --> 0:22:00.680 clips used in this episode. Our artwork for this season 0:22:00.960 --> 0:22:06.040 was drawn by Matt Fleming. You can find corresponding stories, photos, 0:22:06.119 --> 0:22:09.439 and documents for this season on our website at drillednews 0:22:09.600 --> 0:22:13.359 dot com. If you are a Patreon subscriber, thank you. 0:22:13.600 --> 0:22:16.959 Your support is helping to make this season. And as 0:22:17.000 --> 0:22:19.320 a special thank you, if you would like to get 0:22:19.440 --> 0:22:22.679 next week's episode early, go check your feed because it's 0:22:22.760 --> 0:22:25.960 there now. If you're listening to this and you're not 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:30.040 a Patreon subscriber and you can't wait for next week's episode, 0:22:30.280 --> 0:22:34.119 go ahead and sign up. It's Patreon dot com slash drilled. 0:22:34.920 --> 0:22:37.520 Thanks for that and thanks for listening, and we'll see 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:38.080 you next time.