Weekly Report - 17 February 2011 (WR-11-07)

The US oil giant Chevron was fined US$8.6bn by Ecuador's provincial court of Sucumbí­os on 14 February for massive despoliation of the Amazon. This is a significant development but it is still far from the denouement of Ecuador's seemingly interminable legal battle with Chevron, now into its eighteenth year. Chevron has no assets in Ecuador, which could be seized to pressure it to pay, and it is appealing: it has sought to discredit the court and the plaintiffs. The lawyer of the 30,000 indigenous, on whose behalf the case was brought in 1993, also intends to appeal, arguing that Chevron should have been fined US$27bn.

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