Ecuador Judge Nicolás Zambrano, who found Chevron guilty in February 2011 of
the world’s largest oil-related environmental disaster, submitted the filing to the U.S. court, in response to false charges brought by Chevron that Zambrano allowed
the Ecuadorians’ lawyers to write his judgment for payment.
Zambrano said in his
declaration that only he wrote the detailed 188-page ruling, documenting the
extensive contamination of Chevron’s substandard drilling and exploratory
system wrought upon the environment and the impoverished indigenous people
living near the pollution. Chevron has argued that Zambrano was incapable of
writing such a judgment and has entered into evidence testimony by another
judge, Alberto Guerra, that the real authors are the Ecuadorians’ lawyers, charges that the lawyers deny.
Only problem is Guerra has
been paid at least $324,000 for his testimony and likely will be paid
much, much more, given the unbelievable agreement Chevron has negotiated with
Guerra, who now lives in Miami with his family and his son’s family – all at
Chevron’s expense.
Importantly, Chevron’s own
lawyers have admitted that Guerra actually approached Chevron in 2009 about
writing the judgment in its favor if they would pay him.
Not surprisingly, about that
time, Guerra announced publicly that he thought the lawsuit against Chevron was
not legitimate, even though the trial was underway.
Also underway at the same
time was a Chevron sting operation to derail the trial by staging a phony
bribery attempt against yet another judge who heard the case. It
failed miserably, but Chevron spent much of the year organizing it and publicizing
its sensational but false allegations of bribes.
At no time in 2009, 2010 and
2011, during years of hysterically wild accusations of corruption and fraud charged
by Chevron, did the oil giant breathe a word about Guerra offering to write the
judgment for Chevron for money.
If Chevron wanted to prove
that the Ecuador courts were corrupt, here was its perfect opportunity. Yet,
Chevron’s lawyers, not known for avoiding a media interview in Quito, were
silent.
Now Zambrano reveals that Guerra as Chevron's proxy approached him in August 2012 with an offer to turn evidence against the Ecuadorians’
lawyers for $1 million or as much money as Zambrano might want.
Zambrano rejected the offer
then and later avoided overtures in January 2013 by Chevron lawyer Andres
Rivero who called Zambrano and urged a meeting. Zambrano refused.
The 20-year-old case, now
being litigated to seize Chevron's assets in Brazil, Argentina, Canada and Ecuador as
payment for the judgment, continues to take twists and turns in the U.S., both sides slinging charges fast and furious.
But, there are two charges that even Chevron cannot deny:
One: Chevron’s man, Alberto
Guerra, is as corrupt as the day is long.
And, two: Texaco, which
Chevron bought, dumped 16 billion gallons of toxic water and oil directly into
the rainforest waterways and built 900 unlined pits and filled them with pure
crude that has leeched into soil and underground water -- all because it wanted to save money. Chevron's company treated the rainforest like a garbage dump and its people as disposable as the toxic oil it left behind.
Visit and watch a video on ChevronToxico.com to find out more.
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