South America

Venezuela asks UN to take action against US over visa dispute

Venezuela has sent a letter to the UN chief asking him to take measures against the United States over the denial of visas for some members of its delegation who are scheduled to attend the UN General Assembly in New York.

RT

21 September, 2013

The letter sent by Venezuela’s ambassador to the UN, Samuel Moncada, requests that the Secretary General Ban Ki-moon take action in response to the apparent denial of visas, which President Maduro has said seems intended to “create logistical obstacles to impede” next week’s visit. 

Venezuela further requests that the UN “demand that the government of the US abide by its international obligations” as host of the 68th UN General Assembly. 

On Thursday, President Maduro first raised the issue of the apparent denial of visas to members of his country’s delegation, saying that “we are not traveling to New York as tourists on vacation…we are going to a UN function. I cannot accept that they have denied a visa to Major General Wilmer Barrientos” and indicated a similar situation for another member of his cabinet. 

Tension between the countries spiked on Thursday when Venezuela’s foreign minister, Elias Jaua, told media outlets that the US denied a plane carrying Maduro entrance into its airspace. The aircraft was en route to China. Washington later granted the approval, stating that Venezuela’s request had not been properly submitted. Jaua had denounced the move as “an act of aggression.”

Citing the incident, Bolivian President Evo Morales said he will file a lawsuit against the US government for crimes against humanity.

“I would like to announce that we are preparing a lawsuit against Barack Obama to condemn him for crimes against humanity,” Morales said Thursday at a press conference in the Bolivian city of Santa Cruz. He branded the US president as a “criminal” who violates international law. 

The Bolivian president also suggested that the members of CELAC withdraw their ambassadors from the US to send a message to the Obama Administration. As an additional measure, he said he will call on the member nations of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas to boycott the upcoming meeting of the UN General Assembly. Members of the alliance include Antigua and Barbuda, Cuba, Dominica, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Venezuela, and Saint Lucia.

“The US cannot be allowed to continue with its policy of intimidation and blockading presidential flights,” stressed Morales. 


Ecuador protests denial of US visas for plaintiffs in Chevron oil damages case

Ecuador’s foreign ministry announced on Friday that the US has denied visas to a delegation that was set to travel to the UN General Assembly in New York to present their case regarding an ongoing dispute against Chevron-Texaco.

RT,

21 September, 2013

According to the ministry’s official announcement, the visas for the five Ecuadorian nationals were returned by the US Embassy in Quito “without any explanation.”

That group was to present testimony during a special event at the UN regarding the ecological impact caused by Chevron-Texaco’s oil operations in the Amazon rainforest region of Ecuador - which contaminated two million hectares, according to the country’s government.

At stake in the case is a US$19 billion judgment awarded by an Ecuadorean court against Chevron for cleanup and ecological damage, which is currently being fought at The Hague.

That case faced a setback on Tuesday when an interim ruling in favor of Texaco Corp., later acquired by Chevron, found that a 1995 agreement absolved the company from claims of “collective damage.”

The case against Chevron-Texaco has been ongoing for two decades, and stems from the oil company’s operations in the Amazon which date back to the period between 1972 and 1990.

In February 2011, a judgment by a provincial court in Ecuador produced the multi-billion dollar award against Chevron. However, as the company currently has no holdings in Ecuador, the plaintiffs have instead attempted to force payment in Canada, Brazil, and Argentina.

The $19 billion verdict was the result of a 1993 lawsuit filed in New York federal court by a group of American attorneys – including Steven Donziger - on behalf of 88 residents of the Amazon rainforest. In the intervening period, Texaco was acquired by Chevron in 2001, and plaintiffs re-filed their case in Ecuador in 2003.

For its part, Chevron insists that it was absolved of responsibility for the environmental damages by a 1995 cleanup agreement. The oil company places responsibility for the damages on Petroecuador, Ecuador’s national oil company.

Chevron's legal counsel, Hewitt Pate, said that Tuesday’s ruling "confirms that the fraudulent claims against Chevron should not have been brought in the first place."

It was the oil company itself which petitioned the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague to intervene in the case, under the authority of the US-Ecuador Bilateral Investment Treaty.

In response to Tuesday’s interim ruling, Chris Gowen, an attorney working with Donziger, said that he did not recognize its validity.

“The tribunal’s decision illustrates that Chevron can only win when it runs away from legitimate institutions and seeks refuge behind pro-corporate ideologues. This decision was essentially purchased by Chevron from a completely illegitimate ‘court’ with no authority over the case and the facts,” Gowen told Businessweek.

This week, Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa launched a campaign dubbed ‘Chevron’s Dirty Hand’which seeks a global boycott of Chevron based on its refusal to pay billions in damages.

“We will expose to the world Chevron's multimillion dollar campaign to discredit this country. It is a campaign that involves taking away preferential tariffs, boycotting international trade with the United States," said President Correa.

Interestingly, at least a portion of the legal wrangling between Ecuador and Chevron were exposed by diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks, which indicated that the oil company had directly sought help on the matter from the US government.

A March 2006 cable produced by US officials in Quito pointed to communication with the oil company on the topic of damages.

“In previous meetings, Chevron reps have suggested that the [US government] pressure the [Government of Ecuador] to assume responsibility for the environmental damage in the areas once operated by Chevron. Given the complex legal questions and the questions of fact disputed in the case, it does not seem likely that any available inducements would convince the [government of Ecuador] to assume what may amount to billions of dollars of environmental liability,” the cable states.

If enforced, the judgment against Chevron-Texaco would represent one of the world’s largest, only coming in behind BP’s $20 billion fund to compensate victims of the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill