LatinNews Daily Report - 17 October 2012

ECONOMICS & FOREIGN RELATIONS| Ecuadorean courts seize Chevron assets. On 16 October a judge from the provincial court of Sucumbíos ordered the immediate seizure of all the assets of a US oil company, Chevron Corporation, and its subsidiaries in Ecuador. These assets include money held in Ecuadorean banks; any economic benefit that Chevron may have from the sale of its products in Ecuador; and even a US$96m fine imposed by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the Ecuadorean State as a result of a separate lawsuit won by Chevron. Yesterday’s order by Judge Wilfredo Erazo comes after Ecuadorean courts ruled last year that Chevron must pay US$18bn in compensation for environmental damages caused by its operations in the Amazonian region in the 1990s. Chevron refuses to pay the fine arguing that the ruling by the Ecuadorean courts was flawed and fraudulent. A Chevron spokesman, James Craig, said that the latest ruling was not a “surprise” and that it was just “another violation of international law on Ecuador’s part”. He said that the company would continue to fight the rulings via all the legal channels available both in and outside Ecuador.

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