WEBVTT - The Big Guns: Chevron's Legal Offensive 0:00:02.680 --> 0:00:12.079 Combe Conger, give us a comic comb. 0:00:13.840 --> 0:00:18.200 This is Maria Aginda, an indigenous woman in Ecuador, singing 0:00:18.360 --> 0:00:21.640 about the damage that oil companies have done to her community. 0:00:22.200 --> 0:00:23.279 She was the lead. 0:00:23.280 --> 0:00:27.520 Plaintiff in the case against Texaco and then Chevron in Ecuador. 0:00:27.800 --> 0:00:31.040 It's usually referred to as the Aginda Case after her. 0:00:31.880 --> 0:00:34.519 In the decades since the case began, there have been 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:38.840 various attempts alternately to lionize and discredit her, to cast 0:00:38.920 --> 0:00:41.400 her as a victim of the oil companies or as 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:46.159 a pawn of the plaintiff's attorneys. There is a mountain 0:00:46.320 --> 0:00:49.040 of situations like this in this case, where one side 0:00:49.080 --> 0:00:52.239 says one thing, the other side says the exact opposite thing, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:55.080 and there's no way that both could be true. These 0:00:55.120 --> 0:00:57.680 sorts of things started to really pile up in two 0:00:57.720 --> 0:01:01.400 thousand and eight, five years after the case had initially 0:01:01.560 --> 0:01:03.240 kicked off again in Ecuador. 0:01:04.160 --> 0:01:07.920 Basically, to close a pit require eight different steps. 0:01:08.560 --> 0:01:12.200 This is Ricardo rays Vega, who led Chevron's legal team 0:01:12.280 --> 0:01:15.160 in Ecuador on this case. In this video with lots 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:18.679 of cheesy sound effects, he's explaining the steps that Texico 0:01:18.800 --> 0:01:22.039 took back in the nineteen nineties to remediate its drill 0:01:22.160 --> 0:01:23.399 sites in Ecuador. 0:01:24.080 --> 0:01:28.040 You had to take the oil out, you had to 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:33.760 clean the sludge. You had to freak the water and 0:01:33.800 --> 0:01:36.600 take the water out, but you had to pass tests 0:01:36.680 --> 0:01:43.920 of the water. You had to solidify the basis. Then 0:01:43.959 --> 0:01:48.000 you had to put new dirt and revegetate. 0:01:48.200 --> 0:01:51.040 Around the same time that the case against Chevron was 0:01:51.080 --> 0:01:54.080 filed in Ecuador, in two thousand and three, the government 0:01:54.200 --> 0:01:58.400 of Ecuador filed a criminal complaint against Raisvega and another 0:01:58.520 --> 0:02:02.160 lawyer working for Chevron on the case, Rodrigo pees Paladis. 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:06.080 The complaint alleged that the two had falsified documents around 0:02:06.240 --> 0:02:11.160 Texaco's remediation work. You might recognize pees Paladis's name from 0:02:11.280 --> 0:02:14.720 episode two. He was the Texico attorney meeting with the 0:02:14.800 --> 0:02:18.120 president at his beach house to discuss the company's troubles 0:02:18.240 --> 0:02:21.119 back in nineteen ninety four. In two thousand and three, 0:02:21.360 --> 0:02:25.200 the government was questioning whether the nineteen ninety eight document 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:29.320 releasing Texico of all future liability for its operations in 0:02:29.400 --> 0:02:32.919 the country was the product of fraud. That complaint was 0:02:33.000 --> 0:02:35.639 thrown out in two thousand and six for lack of evidence, 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:39.560 and then refiled in two thousand and eight. At that point, 0:02:39.720 --> 0:02:44.079 Viga and Paladis were indicted for conspiracy to fraudulently certify 0:02:44.200 --> 0:02:48.680 Texico's cleanup. Chevron says this was all rigged up by 0:02:48.720 --> 0:02:51.760 the plaintiffs and points to it as a clear indication 0:02:51.919 --> 0:02:55.560 that the government and the court's under President Rafael Correa 0:02:55.800 --> 0:02:59.079 were in cahoots with the plaintiffs, that there was no 0:02:59.200 --> 0:03:02.360 way they could get a fair trial in Ecuador. Here's 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.640 Randy Mastro, an attorney who's been working on this case 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:07.760 for Chevron since two thousand and nine. 0:03:08.080 --> 0:03:14.079 He got Ecuadorian authorities, without any basis whatsoever, to bring 0:03:14.240 --> 0:03:20.600 criminal charges against two of the old Texico lawyers who 0:03:20.639 --> 0:03:25.079 were involved in negotiating the releases. When Texico left the 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:30.760 country in the early nineties, those two lawyers faced criminal charges. 0:03:31.160 --> 0:03:33.359 They couldn't even travel. One of them was had to 0:03:33.480 --> 0:03:37.960 leave family in Ecuador, all right, on bogus criminal charges. 0:03:38.520 --> 0:03:39.760 They had done nothing wrong. 0:03:40.480 --> 0:03:43.400 The he in that sentence is Donziger, and it's striking 0:03:43.600 --> 0:03:46.760 how much Mastro's description of what happened to these lawyers 0:03:46.800 --> 0:03:51.880 in Ecuador matches how Donziger describes his situation today. 0:03:52.400 --> 0:03:54.720 I cannot travel, I don't have a passport. 0:03:56.000 --> 0:03:57.440 I cannot leave my apartment. 0:03:57.960 --> 0:04:00.440 This kind of he said, He said, has going on 0:04:00.600 --> 0:04:03.600 for years in this case, with each side calling out 0:04:03.680 --> 0:04:06.160 the tactics of the other, each side trying to get 0:04:06.160 --> 0:04:10.040 the other to flinch. In an outtake from a documentary 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:13.120 about the case, Donziger talks about this dynamic between the 0:04:13.200 --> 0:04:13.960 legal teams. 0:04:15.600 --> 0:04:18.440 We have to keep pushing on all fronts at all times. 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:21.560 That's simple, all fronts at all times. 0:04:21.720 --> 0:04:26.360 Push, push, push. It's just a matter of force. It's 0:04:26.360 --> 0:04:30.040 a pure force. Who can put the most pressure and 0:04:30.080 --> 0:04:34.520 who can resist. It's just like all this bullshit about 0:04:35.279 --> 0:04:38.320 the law on facts. You know, Yeah, that factors into 0:04:38.360 --> 0:04:40.600 it because that affects the level of force. But in 0:04:40.720 --> 0:04:42.839 the end of the day, it is about brute force. 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.400 Who can apply the pressure and who can withstand the pressure, 0:04:47.760 --> 0:04:53.720 and can you get them to the breaking point. It's 0:04:53.760 --> 0:04:57.000 the only way to litigate a case against a powerful 0:04:57.080 --> 0:04:59.839 company on behalf of people who. 0:04:59.680 --> 0:05:03.679 Have no how that pushing was happening in the legal sphere. 0:05:03.800 --> 0:05:06.599 Of course, as the case dragged on, each side accused 0:05:06.640 --> 0:05:10.040 the other of obstruction and delay tactics, but both sides 0:05:10.080 --> 0:05:13.440 were also meeting with judges and playing politics, both in 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:16.760 the US and in Ecuador, and the case was really 0:05:16.880 --> 0:05:20.200 playing out in the press. By two thousand and eight 0:05:20.240 --> 0:05:22.960 and two thousand and nine, the plaintiffs seemed to be 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:29.120 winning on all fronts. Welcome back to Drilled Season five, 0:05:29.400 --> 0:05:32.040 La Lucha and Lunga. If you haven't listened to the 0:05:32.120 --> 0:05:34.120 first three episodes, you're going to need to do that 0:05:34.320 --> 0:05:37.839 for this one to make any sense. Today we're going 0:05:37.920 --> 0:05:39.720 to get into how this case played out in the 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:43.520 press and how that played into the verdict in Ecuador. 0:05:44.080 --> 0:05:46.960 All of that coming up right after this quick break. 0:06:02.279 --> 0:06:06.120 In twenty nineteen, the Washington Post reported on the remarkable 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:08.760 case of a woman who'd spoken out to make sure 0:06:08.760 --> 0:06:11.520 that the man who sexually assaulted her was brought to justice. 0:06:11.880 --> 0:06:15.600 The post new investigative podcast explores everything that happened after. 0:06:16.360 --> 0:06:19.560 It's called Canary. The Washington Post investigates. You may have 0:06:19.640 --> 0:06:22.320 seen their cover art in the podcast apps I Love It. 0:06:22.720 --> 0:06:25.680 Canary is a podcast about what happened when that unusual 0:06:25.800 --> 0:06:29.719 public warning connected to women, and how that warning led 0:06:29.760 --> 0:06:32.760 to a devastating allegation about a powerful man in the 0:06:32.920 --> 0:06:37.440 DC criminal justice system. You can find Canary the Washington 0:06:37.480 --> 0:06:41.000 Post investigates right now, wherever you get in your podcasts. 0:07:02.600 --> 0:07:05.440 In two thousand and seven, William Languish was getting ready 0:07:05.480 --> 0:07:08.040 to run a big feature in Vanity Fair on the 0:07:08.160 --> 0:07:11.840 case against Chevron in Lago Agrio. He had done his homework. 0:07:11.880 --> 0:07:14.600 He'd gone to the town and to the remediation sites. 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.679 He'd met with various scientists, He'd talked to the lawyers 0:07:17.720 --> 0:07:21.080 on both sides. The last thing he needed was responses 0:07:21.120 --> 0:07:24.160 from Chevron to a list of technical questions. 0:07:24.560 --> 0:07:26.520 One of the list of questions that I assembled with 0:07:26.600 --> 0:07:30.840 Donsker's help, very technical ones. There were sites specific how 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:33.360 the remediation went and then what the findings were during 0:07:33.400 --> 0:07:36.960 the sort of opposing sample sampling that was done during 0:07:37.000 --> 0:07:40.800 the court case. They said that they wanted to talk 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:42.760 to me, and they wanted me to come. I said, look, 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:45.280 I'm happy to talk to you, but only if you 0:07:45.320 --> 0:07:46.440 answer those questions first. 0:07:47.320 --> 0:07:51.360 Seven years later, those questions became a weapon that Chevron 0:07:51.520 --> 0:07:56.440 used to question Languish's journalistic integrity, mainly because he asked 0:07:56.560 --> 0:07:59.680 Donziger for his input on them, which frankly is a 0:07:59.680 --> 0:08:04.760 little weird, but Languish explained that he needed Donziger's input 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.520 on some of the more technical questions for accuracy, and 0:08:08.680 --> 0:08:11.360 that he was hoping Donziger could help him freeze the 0:08:11.440 --> 0:08:13.960 questions in such a way that Chevron would feel more 0:08:14.000 --> 0:08:17.120 compelled to answer at any rate. Here's what happened as 0:08:17.200 --> 0:08:18.480 he was working on the story. 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.280 Answer those questions yes or no, tell me what your 0:08:22.360 --> 0:08:25.360 response is, and if you answer the questions, I'm very 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:28.120 happy became at that point. For they never, of course 0:08:28.160 --> 0:08:31.400 answered the questions. They were very specific questions. Yeah, and 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:34.760 then they went after Conde to asked, but they had 0:08:34.840 --> 0:08:38.280 Grayton Carter and Graydon Carter had balls. 0:08:38.720 --> 0:08:41.960 Graydon Carter, of course, was the longtime editor of Vanity Fair. 0:08:42.520 --> 0:08:44.800 Those are the days when it was kind of the 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:47.920 last years of Braydon Carter being like, don't mess with 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.280 Braidon Carter. So they when the threat of lawsuit came in, 0:08:51.720 --> 0:08:54.520 when Chevron started pulling that stuff and threatening, you know, 0:08:55.000 --> 0:08:58.520 basically saber rattling, heat it up to it, and we 0:08:58.600 --> 0:09:01.839 went through We did go through a verification process. The 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:06.559 piece was in no sense affected by that process. There 0:09:06.640 --> 0:09:12.280 was absolutely no censorship of any kind. But what did 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:17.199 happen is that I in that piece had lines that 0:09:17.400 --> 0:09:23.520 were intentionally surreal and facetious. Anything it wasn't absolutely factual 0:09:24.040 --> 0:09:26.839 had to leave. So the effect of that on the 0:09:26.880 --> 0:09:29.959 piece at the time, I thought that basically dulled the 0:09:29.960 --> 0:09:31.720 piece down, like, who the hell wants to read this thing? 0:09:31.760 --> 0:09:34.600 It's as dull if it has no life to it anymore, 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.960 And then maybe you saiveryone had that effect, although recently, 0:09:38.320 --> 0:09:42.480 and because of the Donziger's current troubles, saying maybe six 0:09:42.559 --> 0:09:44.559 months ago, I read the piece again, I think that's 0:09:44.559 --> 0:09:47.480 a pretty damn good piece. Actually it wasn't as bad 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:49.080 as I thought it was at the time. 0:09:49.880 --> 0:09:53.680 That piece triggered an uptick in media attention on the case, 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:56.719 which kept building in two thousand and eight. Then in 0:09:56.880 --> 0:10:00.200 April that year, the two Ecuadorians who'd been lead eating 0:10:00.240 --> 0:10:03.040 a lot of the work on the ground, Luis Giansa, 0:10:03.120 --> 0:10:06.400 who we met in episode two, and Pablo Fajardo, were 0:10:06.440 --> 0:10:10.120 awarded the prestigious Goldman Environmental Prives. 0:10:10.559 --> 0:10:17.920 Unas Tarvis control stodas Hsi mass in his semi processway 0:10:17.960 --> 0:10:24.760 formsion ilucha parechos aravida on tano jalla Housticia. 0:10:25.400 --> 0:10:27.480 I happened to be living in San Francisco at that 0:10:27.600 --> 0:10:30.760 time and was actually at this awards ceremony. I remember 0:10:30.960 --> 0:10:33.920 Luis and Pablo getting a standing ovation from the crowd. 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:37.240 This was happening right in Chevron's backyard, and they weren't 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:40.240 super pleased about it. They took out a full page 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:44.200 ad in the San Francisco Chronicle calling Fajardo and Yanza frauds, 0:10:44.800 --> 0:10:47.160 but it didn't seem to work. The press continued to 0:10:47.200 --> 0:10:49.280 stack up in favor of the plaintiffs. 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:52.160 Now we want to go to Ecuador, where an epic 0:10:52.280 --> 0:10:55.079 lawsuit hits an American oil giant against a group of 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:58.240 Indians from the Amazon rainforest and environmental activists. 0:10:58.320 --> 0:11:02.080 We turned out to Chevron oil giant based in California 0:11:02.200 --> 0:11:05.880 that's being accused of promoting geopolitical blackmail and its effort 0:11:06.000 --> 0:11:10.240 to stave awful lawsuit accusing it of contamidating the Ecuadoran 0:11:10.400 --> 0:11:11.479 Amazon rainforest. 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:14.760 It's been many years now since residents of eggs. In response, 0:11:15.040 --> 0:11:18.800 Chevron amped up its pr and lobbying efforts. Its lobbyists 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:22.000 began pushing against a trade deal that would benefit Ecuador, 0:11:22.640 --> 0:11:25.240 and in an email dated September two thousand and eight, 0:11:25.800 --> 0:11:28.599 various Chevron pr folks are going back and forth with 0:11:28.720 --> 0:11:31.840 one of their external publicists, a guy named Chris Guidez, 0:11:31.880 --> 0:11:34.040 who at the time was with the firm Helen Knowlton, 0:11:34.240 --> 0:11:36.800 about a report that they're preparing the cast doubt on 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:40.240 the Equadorian plaintiffs and on some of the evidence that 0:11:40.360 --> 0:11:45.160 they've presented in this case. They're also cracking jokes about 0:11:45.280 --> 0:11:47.240 not wanting to eat anything that comes out of the 0:11:47.320 --> 0:11:53.319 water in Lago Agrio. A lot of the report that 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.959 the pr team is working on and talking about in 0:11:56.080 --> 0:11:59.200 these emails seems to focus on the science in the case. 0:11:59.720 --> 0:12:02.360 As we heard last time, it's common in Ecuador for 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:05.720 both plaintiffs and defendants to commission their own expert reports 0:12:05.880 --> 0:12:08.400 and submit those to the court, and both sides did. 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.160 The plaintiffs hired a US firm called Stratus Consulting. Here's 0:12:13.240 --> 0:12:16.720 one of their experts, Douglas Beltman, talking to sixty minutes. 0:12:17.440 --> 0:12:18.160 It's a disgrace. 0:12:19.440 --> 0:12:22.240 They treated Ecuador like a trash heap. 0:12:22.400 --> 0:12:23.319 Hey with those stream here. 0:12:23.360 --> 0:12:26.400 It's Doug Beltman worked for the EPA on super fun 0:12:26.520 --> 0:12:29.959 sites in the US. He's now the scientific expert for 0:12:30.080 --> 0:12:31.480 the people suing Chevron. 0:12:32.200 --> 0:12:32.840 Are you saying that. 0:12:32.880 --> 0:12:34.719 Texico never could have gotten away with this in the 0:12:34.840 --> 0:12:35.440 United States. 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:38.880 Oh, absolutely not. It wouldn't have happened in the United States, 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:41.400 and if it had happened, they wouldn't have gotten away 0:12:41.440 --> 0:12:43.680 with leaving it here for thirty years. 0:12:44.160 --> 0:12:48.199 And here is a Chevron appointed expert, Pedro Alvarez, professor 0:12:48.320 --> 0:12:51.679 of Civil and Environmental engineering at Rice University. 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:55.240 When Techaco left Ecuador, the site that it operated a 0:12:55.320 --> 0:13:00.520 would consider represented a relatively safe scenario for with regards 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:03.079 to potential impacts to human health, both because of the 0:13:03.200 --> 0:13:06.520 measures that they took to contain and clean up any contamination, 0:13:07.000 --> 0:13:09.160 and because of the nature of the contaminants that have 0:13:09.320 --> 0:13:12.160 very little mobility and therefore little probability to reach a 0:13:12.240 --> 0:13:13.240 potential receptor. 0:13:13.760 --> 0:13:16.599 On the charge of lasting environmental damage. 0:13:16.600 --> 0:13:20.720 That is a vastly exaggerated charge that is unsupported by 0:13:20.760 --> 0:13:21.760 the evidence. 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:25.640 You can see why the judge might want a report 0:13:25.760 --> 0:13:29.240 from an independent expert. The court appointed a guy named 0:13:29.360 --> 0:13:32.760 Richard Cabrera. He was tasked with taking and testing samples 0:13:32.800 --> 0:13:35.280 from all of the former well sites and drafting a 0:13:35.400 --> 0:13:38.720 report about which sites had been remediated, which sites were 0:13:38.760 --> 0:13:42.160 still contaminated, and how much it would cost to clean 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:45.160 everything up. He comes up a lot in this story 0:13:45.280 --> 0:13:51.839 from here on out, including in Chevron's PR emails. Just 0:13:51.920 --> 0:13:55.000 a couple weeks after the Chevron reps were emailing about 0:13:55.360 --> 0:14:00.719 Cabrera in this report, Chevron's longtime PR consultancy Singer of 0:14:00.880 --> 0:14:05.679 Singer Associates, sent the team a new strategy. It breaks 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:11.800 down into three key areas to focus on. One corruption 0:14:11.960 --> 0:14:14.840 in Ecuador and Corea as the strong man of Ecuador. 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:20.840 Two counter attacks against the plaintiffs, including questioning the funding 0:14:20.960 --> 0:14:26.080 and motives of Cabrera, Donziger and Ecuadorian lawyer Pablo Fajardo. 0:14:27.480 --> 0:14:35.520 Three Petro Ecuador is the real culprit. It's a full 0:14:35.560 --> 0:14:39.360 court press. There are four separate PR agencies, including singers, 0:14:39.880 --> 0:14:43.720 and they're coordinating with Chevron's PR team. It includes plans 0:14:43.760 --> 0:14:47.080 for all forms of media and advertising, and even money 0:14:47.160 --> 0:14:49.680 for a front group or a singer puts it quote 0:14:50.040 --> 0:14:52.800 the US Chamber of Commerce or another think tank or 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:57.000 organization to create an organization solely devoted to addressing the 0:14:57.120 --> 0:15:01.520 issues of Ecuador and actively attacking its positions on business, 0:15:01.680 --> 0:15:07.080 the media, international loans, and socialist policies. But before this 0:15:07.160 --> 0:15:10.760 strategy could deliver results, the plaintiffs continued to pick up 0:15:10.840 --> 0:15:16.560 some wins. First, a bill that extended trade benefits to Ecuador, Peru, Colombia, 0:15:16.720 --> 0:15:20.480 and Bolivia, a bill that Chevron had been lobbying against. 0:15:20.920 --> 0:15:21.560 It passed. 0:15:23.080 --> 0:15:23.920 Thank you all for coming. 0:15:25.000 --> 0:15:26.080 I'm pleased. 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:33.280 That legislation extending the nd and Trade Preference Act has 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:35.160 made it to my desk, and I'm looking forward to 0:15:35.200 --> 0:15:36.560 signing this piece of legislation. 0:15:37.920 --> 0:15:40.320 Then in two thousand and nine, a documentary on the 0:15:40.400 --> 0:15:42.440 case called Crude was announced. 0:15:45.160 --> 0:15:45.760 Locate On. 0:15:48.560 --> 0:15:50.840 Now has just been in destruction. 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:55.640 The total area in which texacooted. 0:15:55.800 --> 0:15:59.240 In March, the Chevron PR team was strategizing again, and 0:15:59.520 --> 0:16:04.920 chrisky Is wrote, quote, our lt long term strategy is 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:09.560 to demonize Donziger. This film provides us a great opportunity 0:16:09.720 --> 0:16:10.120 to do so. 0:16:10.880 --> 0:16:14.920 It's not by a single. 0:16:19.400 --> 0:16:22.240 Before the film came out sixty minutes aired, it's special 0:16:22.320 --> 0:16:22.880 on the case. 0:16:23.440 --> 0:16:27.120 These are people who never believed they had a right 0:16:27.440 --> 0:16:29.960 to sue an American company in their own court system. 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:31.920 Yeah, but you know what Chevron says. 0:16:32.000 --> 0:16:34.440 They say that this is being driven by a New 0:16:34.560 --> 0:16:37.680 York plaintiff's lawyer, and they don't mean that as a compliment. 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:38.640 I'm well aware of that. 0:16:38.720 --> 0:16:41.720 They've taken out advertisements in the equadorm press with my name, 0:16:41.840 --> 0:16:43.280 trying to attack my reputation. 0:16:43.560 --> 0:16:44.280 What do you think of that? 0:16:45.000 --> 0:16:48.560 Well, I think that it puts me in the membership, frankly, 0:16:48.640 --> 0:16:50.160 of a very distinguished club of people. 0:17:01.600 --> 0:17:04.720 With the media narratives spiraling out of its grasp, Chevron 0:17:04.800 --> 0:17:07.640 brought in the big dogs, the law firm Gibson Done 0:17:07.880 --> 0:17:10.080 in fall two thousand and nine. The firm was just 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:13.400 wrapping up a landmark case for Dole, the food company, 0:17:14.000 --> 0:17:17.200 which had also been fighting a damages suit in Latin 0:17:17.240 --> 0:17:21.320 America for decades. Nicaragua and Banana farmers had sued the 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.760 company for knowingly spraying their fields with a pesticide that 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.959 causes sterilization. They won in a Nicaragua court, but Gibson 0:17:29.000 --> 0:17:32.879 Dune attorneys argued that that court had no jurisdiction over Dole, 0:17:33.119 --> 0:17:34.320 an American company. 0:17:35.400 --> 0:17:37.840 When did you get involved in the case? 0:17:37.880 --> 0:17:38.280 What year? 0:17:39.200 --> 0:17:41.640 Late two thousand and nine, early twenty ten. 0:17:42.600 --> 0:17:45.399 That's Randy Mastro again. He led Gibson Dunn's work for 0:17:45.560 --> 0:17:46.840 Chevron on the case. 0:17:46.680 --> 0:17:50.240 In Ecuador, Okay, and what were you know? What was 0:17:50.280 --> 0:17:51.359 sort of the task. 0:17:54.960 --> 0:18:01.160 Gibson Dun was asked to join the team of outside 0:18:01.240 --> 0:18:09.200 council representing Chevron in connection with the litigation in Ecuador 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:17.200 and in connection with trying to find out the truth 0:18:17.280 --> 0:18:18.919 about what was going on in Ecuador. 0:18:19.800 --> 0:18:22.159 By this point, not only was the media tipping in 0:18:22.240 --> 0:18:25.600 favor of the plaintiffs, but President Correa had been publicly 0:18:25.720 --> 0:18:29.360 supportive of the suit as well. Luis Jansa, Ecuador says 0:18:29.400 --> 0:18:32.000 it wasn't even so much that Correa was a great 0:18:32.119 --> 0:18:35.200 friend to the plaintiffs. He just wasn't as much in 0:18:35.320 --> 0:18:39.199 the pocket of oil companies as previous Ecuadorian presidents had been. 0:18:39.920 --> 0:18:44.400 Losioris sien pre estaman. 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:53.800 In parcel comp Previous governments were always biased in favor 0:18:53.880 --> 0:19:02.200 of the company, he says, nonsotrosimos. We had to have 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:07.360 a lot of actions in Quito, with marches, meetings, press conferences, 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:15.560 meetings with politicians, all of that, a lot, a lot, 0:19:15.640 --> 0:19:19.119 a lot of work to neutralize the government just so 0:19:19.240 --> 0:19:23.720 they didn't bow completely to the company. When Correa was elected, though. 0:19:25.920 --> 0:19:26.000 He. 0:19:27.960 --> 0:19:31.360 Visited the area and talked to the people and realized 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:34.159 the magnitude of the damage the company had done and 0:19:34.280 --> 0:19:36.439 that the struggle we had been carrying out for more 0:19:36.520 --> 0:19:40.159 than a decade was just and he decided to support it. 0:19:40.640 --> 0:19:47.320 He end the CEO. And on top of all that, 0:19:48.000 --> 0:19:52.000 in two thousand and eight, Ecuador had ratified a new constitution, 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:58.040 one that gave equal rights to indigenous people, and that 0:19:58.160 --> 0:20:02.040 included a radical new idea, yeah, the rights of nature. 0:20:02.960 --> 0:20:05.840 Ecuador was the first country to include these rights in 0:20:05.920 --> 0:20:08.960 its constitution. At some point, we're going to do a 0:20:09.080 --> 0:20:12.520 whole season on rights of nature because it's fascinating and 0:20:12.640 --> 0:20:15.639 it's really become an interesting new legal tool. But in 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:18.520 broad strokes, if you think about private property rights and 0:20:18.680 --> 0:20:22.720 how they ascribe control over nature to whatever human has 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:25.919 purchased this piece of land, rights of nature says, forget 0:20:26.000 --> 0:20:29.440 that nature has its own rights. All life forms have 0:20:29.600 --> 0:20:32.920 the right to exist and to continue living. And here's 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.760 where it gets interesting from a legal perspective. It says 0:20:36.840 --> 0:20:40.439 that legally, we the people have authority to enforce these 0:20:40.560 --> 0:20:44.879 rights on behalf of ecosystems. The ecosystem itself can be 0:20:45.080 --> 0:20:49.200 named as the defendant. It's hard to imagine Chevron or 0:20:49.280 --> 0:20:52.760 really any oil company being happy about this kind of thing. 0:21:00.760 --> 0:21:03.640 And so, in two thousand and nine, with multiple pr 0:21:03.760 --> 0:21:06.520 firms and a new legal team, on board, the company 0:21:06.560 --> 0:21:08.480 started to tell a different story. 0:21:09.359 --> 0:21:12.960 A bitter environmental lawsuit against Chevron, the second largest oil 0:21:13.000 --> 0:21:15.800 company in the United States, appears to be entering its 0:21:15.840 --> 0:21:17.320 critical phase in Ecuador. 0:21:18.240 --> 0:21:22.480 First, they hired former CNN reporter Gene Randall to host 0:21:22.600 --> 0:21:27.000 a mirror image version of the sixty minutes documentary with 0:21:27.200 --> 0:21:28.240 their side of the story. 0:21:28.920 --> 0:21:32.280 Chevron asked toxicologist Thomas mchu to study the issue. 0:21:32.600 --> 0:21:37.840 The health effects that reported are attributable to exposure to bacteria, 0:21:37.880 --> 0:21:40.359 which is widespread in the drinking water sources. They're not 0:21:41.000 --> 0:21:43.320 attributable to petroleum exposure, no. 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:44.040 Doubt about that. 0:21:44.400 --> 0:21:45.520 There's no doubt in my mind. 0:21:45.920 --> 0:21:50.120 Despite the claims that's correct, there are fears such findings 0:21:50.200 --> 0:21:54.600 may be trumped by politics. Ecuador's President Rafael Correa loudly 0:21:54.680 --> 0:21:59.119 supports the case against Chevron's At Correa's instigation, with the 0:21:59.160 --> 0:22:03.320 support of the Amazon Defense Coalition, seven Ecuadorian officials who 0:22:03.400 --> 0:22:07.920 signed Texico's environmental liability release faced criminal charges. 0:22:09.160 --> 0:22:11.520 He's talking about the attorneys we mentioned at the top 0:22:11.600 --> 0:22:16.200 of this episode, Ricardo Risvega and Rodrigo Perez Palaris, along 0:22:16.280 --> 0:22:19.920 with seven Ecuadorian officials. They were accused of tampering with 0:22:20.000 --> 0:22:23.440 a release form that had become pretty central to Chevron's 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.000 defense in this case. Shortly after that nineteen ninety four 0:22:27.119 --> 0:22:30.440 meeting we mentioned in episode two, where Texico's lawyer was 0:22:30.520 --> 0:22:34.480 meeting with the president and various environment ministers, the government 0:22:34.640 --> 0:22:38.520 came to an agreement with Texaco about remediation. Here's Chevrons 0:22:38.520 --> 0:22:42.840 spokesperson Kent Robertson explaining that arrangement to NPR. In late 0:22:42.920 --> 0:22:43.720 two thousand and eight. 0:22:44.280 --> 0:22:48.440 Texico held a thirty seven percent interest in the consortium, 0:22:48.560 --> 0:22:51.720 with its majority partner being Petro Ecuador. Texico is not 0:22:51.880 --> 0:22:56.840 operated in Ecuador for eighteen years. When it was time 0:22:56.920 --> 0:23:00.760 for Texico to depart Ecuador, the party sat down and 0:23:00.880 --> 0:23:05.240 worked out a remediation program where Texco would address its 0:23:05.560 --> 0:23:10.480 proportionate share of the consortium thirty seven zero point five percent, 0:23:11.080 --> 0:23:15.439 and Petro Ecuador assumed responsibility for the balance of the operations. 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:19.720 In nineteen ninety eight, after they had remediated thirty seven 0:23:19.800 --> 0:23:24.119 point five percent of the pollution, Texico submitted documentation to 0:23:24.240 --> 0:23:27.440 the government and the government signed a document releasing the 0:23:27.560 --> 0:23:31.800 company from any further cleanup. Again, the argument the plaintiffs make, 0:23:32.000 --> 0:23:34.960 and that the lawyer and researcher Judith Kimerling made to 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.520 us as well, is that Texico was the operator, and 0:23:38.680 --> 0:23:41.439 that means they set everything up and they taught everyone 0:23:41.520 --> 0:23:44.760 how to do things. They created the oil industry in Ecuador, 0:23:45.000 --> 0:23:48.440 and they set a low standard for environmental responsibility. I 0:23:48.640 --> 0:23:50.399 asked Randy Mastro about that. 0:23:50.720 --> 0:23:52.960 We've had a few people kind of float this idea 0:23:53.119 --> 0:23:56.600 of like, yes, okay, technically Petro Ecuador has been doing 0:23:56.680 --> 0:23:58.960 all this stuff, but you know it was Texco who 0:23:59.080 --> 0:24:01.760 trained them, and it Texco who built the whole system. 0:24:02.640 --> 0:24:07.000 What is the response to that kind of line of thought? 0:24:08.960 --> 0:24:15.760 Wow, that is revisionist history and you know, trying to 0:24:15.840 --> 0:24:19.880 put the blame where it doesn't belong. Texago got kicked 0:24:19.880 --> 0:24:24.040 out of the country starting in nineteen ninety. Texico spent 0:24:24.760 --> 0:24:28.920 you know, back in the early nineties, you know, forty 0:24:28.960 --> 0:24:36.520 plus million dollars on remediation and other relief, and in 0:24:36.600 --> 0:24:39.520 those days, that was a lot of money. And in 0:24:39.760 --> 0:24:43.080 independent testing services confirmed that Texico did what it was 0:24:43.119 --> 0:24:43.639 supposed to do. 0:24:44.840 --> 0:24:47.520 Like a lot of things in this story, this is 0:24:47.960 --> 0:24:50.640 kind of true if you squinted it for long enough. 0:24:51.000 --> 0:24:54.800 Texico began exploring for oil in Ecuador in nineteen sixty 0:24:54.920 --> 0:24:58.080 four thanks to an agreement with the military junta that 0:24:58.280 --> 0:25:01.680 controlled the country at the time. The company struck black 0:25:01.680 --> 0:25:05.879 Gold in nineteen sixty seven. At that time, Texico was 0:25:05.920 --> 0:25:09.040 in a partnership with Golf Oil, and both companies were 0:25:09.080 --> 0:25:14.000