Amazonian Finger-pointing

Ecuador,
the Dowbrigade’s favorite country in South America, a land of unparalleded
natural beauty and beautiful women (including Mrs. Dowbrigade), is also
a founding member of OPEC. For years, most of their oil was sucked up by Texaco
(now ChevronTexaco), which, according to lawsuits currently working their way through courts in Ecuador and the United States, left a bit of a
mess behind, to the tune of 30 billion gallons of toxic
waste dumped into rivers and estuaries between 1971 and 1992 . That’s
a lot of waste.

The Reuter’s
caption on the photo reads: "Huaorani Indians protest in
front of the Superior Court in the Amazonian town of Lago Agrio, Ecuador,
at the start of a landmark trial where indigenous rainforest peoples
are seeking to force ChevronTexaco to clean up the environmental contamination
left behind from Texaco’s oil drilling operations in the Ecuadorian Amazon,
October 21, 2003. The court has the power to impose a multi-billion dollar
judgement against ChevonTexaco that will be enforceable in U.S. courts,
for the waste left from oil drilling that has had serious health ramifications
for the Indians."

AP story