On Sunday, Emergildo Criolo, an Indigenous leader of the Cofan people in Ecuador, traveled from his home in the Amazon rainforest to personally deliver a message to the oil giant’s new CEO John Watson.
Yesterday, Emergildo Criollo (with international group of supporters) boarded a donated bio-diesel bus and went to John Watson’s home in Lafayette, CA and then to Chevron headquarters in San Ramon. Emergildo traveled all this way to appeal to Watson “one man with sons to another.”
He came bearing a powerful letter from other Indigenous and community leaders from the region in Ecuador that Chevron systematically poisoned with toxic oil and waste dumping. As well as the 325,000+ signatures of support from people all over the globe – probably many of you – who are also urging Chevron to do the right thing and clean up Ecuador.
Unfortunately, John Watson (who has never been to Ecuador to witness the devastation that 18billion gallons of waste his company is responsible for has caused) refused to listen to Emergildo’s story and accept the petitions. In a totally un-shocking move Chevron instead sent out the big dogs in their PR department ( Rhonda I.Zygocki, Vice President, Policy, Government and Public Affairs
Silvia M. Garrigo. Manager Global Issues and Policy at Chevron Corporation, and Gary Fisher, General Manager, Corporate Public Policy.)
Given that Chevron has consistently chosen to invest millions in PR campaigns and lawyers to delay a legal judgment against instead of simply doing the right thing and cleaning up the toxic contamination that is killing people, it’s no surprise they sent PR people to deal with this “problem” instead of the decision-makers responsible for the continued suffering of Emergildo and the 30,000 other Ecuadoreans in the region.
Emergildo spoke about how he was only 6 years old when Texaco (now Chevron) began oil drilling on his homeland. His family and community didn’t know about oil contamination and the damage it would cause. He spoke of how his pregnant wife had to drink the contaminated water and that his two young sons died because of it.
He also read aloud the letter from leaders in his community that begins (translated from the Spanish):
Mr Watson: Warm greetings from the Ecuadorian Amazon. It has come to our attention that you are the new CEO of Chevron, a company that for us, means pain and profound suffering. Chevron has affected our lives for almost half a century, and is still affecting us until this day.”
and ends with a simple statement,
“Mr Watson: We need to live.”
How did Chevron respond to this heartfelt message from Emergildo, his community, and concerned people from around the world? By spewing their same PR lies and deflections in a profound insult to Emergildo and the people of Ecuador.
As Emergildo said directly after the exchange, “We will stay strong and keep fighting.”
Today, we’re with Emergildo in Sacramento at the invitation of Senator Fran Pavley and Assemblymember Jared Huffman. Emergildo and supporters from RAN and Amazon Watch are speaking with dozens of California lawmakers to make sure they know what California’s largest corporation (and top greenhouse gas polluter) is doing to the people and fragile eco-systems of Ecuador. Many lawmakers have already expressed interest in doing what they can to help support the community’s demand for a clean-up in Ecuador.
Event photo gallery: http://changechevron.org/blog/emergildo-criollo-delivers-petition-to-chevron-headquarters/#comment-962
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