Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. was a class-action lawsuit against Texaco Petroleum. It was filed in 1993 by American human rights lawyer Steven Donziger on behalf of indigenous collectives in the Ecuadorian Amazon. The lawsuit sought compensation for "alleged environmental and personal injuries arising out of Texaco's oil exploration and extraction operations in the Oriente region between 1964 and 1992".[1] Legal proceedings followed in courts in Ecuador and the United States for about a decade. The case was dismissed on May 30, 2001, on grounds of forum non conveniens (meaning that the case was outside the jurisdiction of US courts and should be heard in Ecuadorian or international courts).
Following dismissal of Aguinda v. Texaco in the US, plaintiffs filed Maria Aguinda Salazar v, ChevronTexaco Corp in Ecuador in 2003, which in turn led to other progeny cases including Republic of Ecuador v. ChevronTexaco Corp and Moi Vicente Enomenga Mantohue v. Chevron Corporation and Texaco Petroleum Company.
Background
Exploitation
In the early years of modern oil extraction, the Ecuadorian government and corporations viewed the petroleum-rich Amazon as tierras baldias, or unoccupied lands.[2] Instead, the Ecuadorian Amazon was home to indigenous peoples including the Quichua, Shuar, Achuar, Cofan, Huaorani, Shiwiar, Secoya, and Siona.[3] Texaco Petroleum signed its first contract with the Ecuadorian government in 1964.[2] Oil extraction went completely unregulated through much of the 20th century.[4] By 1990, nearly 1.5 billion barrels of oil had been extracted from the Oriente alone, one of several Amazonian regions in Ecuador.[3]
History
In 1993, indigenous collectives filed Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. This class-action lawsuit alleged past negligence. It was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.[2][5] Among the indigenous groups involved in this lawsuit were FEINCE (Cofan), OISE (Secoya), and FOISE (Quichua). A related proceeding was filed in the Southern District of Texas and others were filed in Lago Agrio courthouse in Ecuador.[2]
This was the first form of legal resistance against petroleum exploitation in the Amazon.[6] The lawsuit was first dismissed in 1995 by Judge Jed Rakoff, who stated that US courts have no obligation to adjudicate international disputes.[7] Texaco and the Ecuadorian government tried to settle the lawsuit later that year through mediation; however, the Energy Ministry discovered soon after that Texaco had not disclosed two hundred additional waste pits in Ecuador.
References
- Aguinda v. Texaco, Inc. August 16, 2002, retrieved 2021-01-20^
- G Valdivia. The Amazonian trial of the century: Indigenous identities, transnational networks, and petroleum in Ecuador Alternatives, 2007^
- J Kimerling. Disregarding environmental law: petroleum development in protected natural areas and indigenous homelands in the Ecuadorian Amazon