Help Expose Chevron’s Human Rights Hitmen

By Rainforest Action Network

Chevron's Human Rights HitmenChevron’s latest bullying legal tactic is a RICO suit filed in a U.S. federal court against the Indigenous and rural Ecuadoreans who are attempting to force the company to clean up its billions of gallons of toxic oil waste in the Amazon.

One of the plaintiffs’ lawyers in Ecuador, Juan Pablo Sáenz, filed a declaration yesterday detailing the long history of abusive tactics Chevron has employed, arguing that Chevron’s counter-charges against the plaintiffs rest on Chevron’s “jaundiced worldview,” which holds that a corporate heavyweight like Chevron cannot be held accountable by a group of poor Indigenous and rural people whose power and influence pale in comparison to the Big Oil behemoth’s.

The declaration is a compelling — and galling — read. The depths Chevron has sunk to with its duplicitous maneuvering is staggering. Ever wonder how the company executes all these shady tactics?

Chevron has assembled a crack team of Human Rights Hitmen to employ any dirty trick, intimidation tactic, and shady legal maneuver conceivable to help the company avoid cleaning up its mess in Ecuador. We can’t let them get away with it — we need you to help us expose Chevron’s Human Rights Hitmen. We’ve created a mini-site detailing the work they’re doing to deny human rights to the plaintiffs in Ecuador. Check out the site and then help us get the word out. There are buttons on the site so you can share.

Most importantly, you can help us make sure journalists and anyone else looking into the environmental lawsuit in Ecuador find out the truth by linking to the Human Rights Hitmen on your blog, your website, or anywhere else you can, building the search ranking for our site. We need to make sure that when anyone looks into this case, they get the complete version, not Chevron’s spin. So when you post links, use keywords like “Chevron,” “Human Rights,” “Ecuador,” “lawsuit,” “oil,” “rainforest,” and anything else people are likely to use as search terms when looking for more information on the landmark environmental lawsuit in Ecuador.

Chevron is working really hard to push a narrative that portrays itself as the victim, and the RICO suit is just the latest attempt to push this bogus version of events. But there is a reason Chevron was found guilty: Because Chevron is guilty. If anyone is trying to defraud the courts and the public, it’s Chevron. These Human Rights Hitmen are the people pushing Chevron’s self-serving narrative on the public and trying to enforce it in the courts. Let’s all shine a bright light on their misdeeds.

Large, wealthy corporations like Chevron think they can get away with poisoning communities in their reckless pursuit of profits. The thing is, in many cases they can, thanks to dirty tricks operatives like Diego Borja, morally-bankrupt lawyers like Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher’s Andrea E. Neuman and Randy M. Mastro, corporate spymasters like Kroll Inc.’s Sam Anson, and of course, Chevron’s own in-house counsel — none other than R. Hewitt Pate, a former Bush Administration lawyer who was once described as “Chevron’s Karl Rove.”

Help us expose these Human Rights Hitmen and fight for justice for the thousands of rainforest dwellers who are still sick and dying from Chevron’s oil pollution.