The RAN office is in high gear right now. Emergildo Criollo just arrived at our San Francisco offices straight from his home in the Ecuador rainforest, and we are prepping for a big visit to Chevron headquarters tomorrow. Emergildo is an Indigenous leader from Ecuador’s rainforest and has traveled to California tell his story to Chevron CEO John Watson, and present a letter to Mr Watson on behalf of the Cofan, Siona, Secoya Indigenous Nations, and the Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia. The question now is will John Watson listen? It’s becoming pretty impossible for him to not listen, thanks to you.
Emergildo will also be delivering the over 325,000 signatures from around the world standing with him in calling for Chevron to:
· Chevron needs to listen to Emergildo and clean up Ecuador.
· Chevron needs to compensate the communities for health and environmental impacts.
· Chevron needs to develop robust environmental and human rights policies that will prevent similar tragedies from happening in the future, because energy should not cost lives.
In fact we just got out of a meeting with Emergildo discussing all of the amazing petition deliveries suggestions everyone sent to us. We had over 100’s of suggestions through our website, Twitter, and Facebook and we couldn’t choose just one. So we’re excited to be using a hybrid of many of the suggestions you sent.
Emergildo’s story is the story of thousands of people in Ecuador who are suffering and dying because Chevron refuses to clean up a legacy of billions of gallons of toxic oil waste and unlined oil pits. His son had severe developmental disabilities and died at just 6 months. He lost his other son at age three. His wife contracted uterine cancer and had to undergo a hysterectomy. The family drank, bathed and fished in a river where Chevron (then Texaco) regularly dumped oil sludge.
Tomorrow Emergildo and dozens for supporters will board a bus bound for Chevron headquarters, backed by the 325,000 voices, we’ll share Emergilo’s story, send Chevron a message, and make sure John Watson knows we’ll be keeping the heat on until he does what’s right in Ecuador.
We’ll be sending live updates throughout the day on Facebook and Twitter and will need your help tomorrow as well.
Stay tuned…