Chevron
has a new boss man, and in an ironic kick in the pants Chevron's new CEO John
Watson is the very man that orchestrated Chevron's takeover of Texaco, and with
it the 18 billion gallons of toxic waste water and 17 million gallons of crude
oil deliberately dumped in Ecuadorian rainforest communities. Given Watson's
intimate understanding of Chevron's
toxic legacy
there is no question he knows what is necessary to clean up their mess and
compensate the communities that have been living with the effects of Chevron's
contamination for decades. In response to Watson's new tenure the
Clean Up Ecuador Campaign has
launched a
global petition to Mr.
Watson, with an accompanying video-message (
Spanish /
English) the affected communities of the
Ecuadorian Amazon.
Watson
is stepping into a mess that former CEO Dave O'Reilly left behind when he
skipped out on the reeling company on 12/31. Unfortunately, judging the
reaction by Chevron today in Houston where marathon runners had their
free speech
silenced, and comments attacking Amazon Watch's global petition in yesterday's
Sphere
article it seems that Watson is committed to enabling the same negligence
towards human rights as his predecessor. Watson may choose to define his tenure
by continuing down the O'Reilly path that just last year had Chevron publicly
aligning themselves with
known
felons, losing precedent setting
refinery battles,
being
wholly
rejected by the US Trade Representative, and being a lightning rod for a
thriving climate justice movement at their
front
door.
However,
dealt such a rotten hand Mr. Watson stands at the most opportune time for an
oil giant's CEO to actually step it up...or just step in it. RAN's newest
campaign
Change Chevron see that
Watson holds an unmatched opportunity to right past wrongs and transform an
industry from criminal to catalyst. Yet, there is a long way to go. Prior to
this moment Chevron has not only ignored the communities they impact, they
blatantly insult them. Chevron relies on lobbying and a brutal
PR
campaign to evade responsibility of, what experts call, the "Amazon
Chernobyl". As a recent Independent article points out Chevron seems to be
standing firm in it's refusal to pay any damages, even if ordered in a
court. In fact a Chevron spokesman has promised a
"lifetime
of litigation." Will
Watson build a tenure on human rights or legal fights?
"It's Human Right's my Dear Watson"
In
the above video, community members hope Watson's tenure stands human rights,
asking him to visit Ecuador and address the oil company's toxic legacy. The
video and petition lead the calls being made for John Watson to take this new
approach as CEO and to
rectify
the human rights and environmental disaster experts call the "Amazon
Chernobyl."
Emergildo
Criollo, a leader from the Cofan tribe, and
rally cry for
this weekend's Chevron Houston Marathon where activists are
running
on his behalf, says in the video, "We don't want to continue dying from
cancer." Criollo lost two sons to fatal illnesses after coming into contact
with toxic waste-water dumped into Amazon waterways by Texaco. Mariana Jimenez,
another community member living with Chevron's lifetime litigation strategy
invites CEO John Watson to Ecuador and says that he "will be received well" and
that they are only "hoping for a rational person". Seems like a reasonable
request. However,
considering
the last guy, rational has never been one of Chevron's (or any oil
companies) strong point.
Around
the contaminated region, an area roughly the size of Rhode Island, there are
thousands more cases like Emergildo and Mariana's. Joining with 30,000 other
indigenous people and campesinos, they are plaintiffs in the landmark lawsuit
against Chevron in Ecuador that has the potential to change the landscape of
the oil industry and catalyze a new era of accountability to the communities
big oil operates in.
I'm
pretty confident real solutions to the human rights violations and climate
crisis are not going to come easily from Watson and Chevron. However I am
confident that as pressure continues to boil over, the oil giant will be held
accountable to their past, present, and continuing attempts to sell out
communities and the climate for a cheap barrel of crude.