Nobel Laureate Rigoberta Menchu in Washington for Protest Against Chevron

Eldonita de Ivan Martínez
2015-04-21 14:34:09

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Quito, April 21 (teleSUR-RHC)-- Nobel Peace Prize winner and internationally renowned indigenous rights activist Rigoberta Menchu will address audiences in Washington D.C. in a show of support for the Ecuadorean people's fight for justice against the Chevron multinational oil company.

Menchu will join activists and supporters of the victims of Chevron's contamination in the Ecuadorean Amazon who are gathering in the U.S. capital in front of the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID). Supporters, which include members of indigenous communities, have traveled from throughout the United States and Canada to participate in the action in Washington.

Chevron has requested that the ICSID hold a hearing to determine if the Ecuadorean state should pay the $9 billion that Ecuadorean courts established should be paid to the victim's of the oil company's contamination in the Ecuadorean Amazon as a result of its operations.

Menchu will also speak alongside noted Mexican academic Ana Esther Ceceña at a forum in Washington.

The activities coincide with Earth Day celebrations being held in the U.S capital. The “We Deserve Justice” campaign addressed a rally of 300,000 people Saturday who had gathered on the Washington Mall. The campaign also had an information tent at the event where more than 2,000 visitors learned about Ecuador's fight for justice.

Chevron has worked to evade justice and avoid paying the compensation ordered by the Ecuadorean courts, a ruling that was also confirmed by the Ecuadorean Supreme Court. According to the company's lawyers, the ruling is unenforceable because it was obtained through fraudulent means. A separate court proceeding is also currently underway to determine if a U.S. judge's decision that deemed the Ecuadorean ruling invalid should be held up.

 



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