Today in a New York Courtroom, Chevron’s campaign to evade
accountability for its environmental and human rights abuses in Ecuador
officially enters a new, egregious, ridiculous stage.
This morning, in Judge Lewis Kaplan’s courtroom on the 21st floor of
the Daniel Patrick Moynihan U.S. Courthouse in New York, Chevron’s team
of lawyers assembled on one side, while long-time advocate for the
Ecuadorian rainforest communities, Steven Donziger and his team
assembled on the other. Some journalists and supporters of the fight to
hold Chevron accountable filled out the courtroom and fidgeted, while
waiting for whatever would come next.Missing from the courtroom as Judge
Kaplan called the first day’s hearing to order was Javier Piaguaje,
Secoya indigenous leader from the community of San Pablo, deep in the
Ecuadorian Amazon. He has consistently rejected the New York court’s
jurisdiction but traveled here to represent the thousands of Ecuadorian
victims of Chevron’s pollution who are being victimized even now by
Chevron’s ongoing scorched earth campaign to crush their righteous fight
for justice.
Earlier in the morning, Javier stood beneath the Flaming Sword of
Justice Monument to briefly address a large crowd of people gathered in
Foley Square; members of the Ecuadorean community in New York, and
supporters of human rights and the environment who came out in
solidarity.
High above Foley Square, Judge Kaplan began the proceedings without a
single representative from the affected Ecuadorian communities. A few
minutes later, finally, Javier joined Steven in the courtroom, along
with their lawyers. Javier had been delayed by long lines at the
entrance check-point; security was tight for the high-profile arraignment of a terror suspect.
But as the proceedings continued, the scene grew only more bizarre.
In its opening statement, Chevron failed to mention a single element
of law against the Ecuadorian defendants. It seems clear that the court
has no choice but to dismiss the entire matter against the Ecuadorians.
In fact, Chevron’s opening statement displays an absolute obsession
with Donziger, but an utter lack of legal basis to proceed in the show
trial now underway. Chevron even failed in its opening statement to
suggest any sort of relief they may be seeking from the court,
suggesting they don’t have a legal basis for relief.
At the outset, besides the overarching fact that this whole RICO case
is merely a weapon of mass distraction designed to explode the landmark
verdict won by the Ecuadorian plaintiffs after one of the most
litigated environmental cases in history, Chevron’s case has a couple
obvious major problems from a legal standpoint: the company can’t meet
the elements of law, and there’s no relief available anyway.
And all of that became clear within the first hour or two. Stay tuned…