Ecuadorians: Chevron Lawyers resort to insults
As the outlook of the historic lawsuit in Ecuador gets grimmer and grimmer for Chevron, they seem to be resorting to more immature and ‘childish’ means of retaliation… calling names and throwing temper tantrums. According to the most recent press releasefrom the Amazon Defense Coalition, lead lawyer for Chevron, Adolfo Callejas insulted the Ecuadorian plaintiffs’ lawyers, Pablo Fajardo and Julio Prieto. He repeatedly called them “gallinas” – which translates to “hens” in English, a bad insult in Ecuadorian culture. He also likened their legal arguments to the cackling sounds of hens. Prieto also reported that he was seemingly threatened by another Chevron lawyer, Alberto Racines, who stated he wanted to settle their differences in a rumble after the court hearing.
What caused these outbursts on part of the Chevron Lawyers? The latest round of inspections at remediated sites that have yielded soil with “shiny, visible oil sludge”. These further discredit Chevron’s strongest defense in the case, that remediation was already done. $40 million dollars worth of remediation. Remediation that left levels of toxic materials 100’s of times above legal limits in some of the inspected sites. It seems clear now that the remediation was terribly insufficient. Just ask the local children suffering from terrible birth defects and higher rates of cancer… Children who, in my opinion, regularly act more maturely than the lawyers at Chevron!
