http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15692
Brazil has demanded that 17 Chevron and Transocean executives surrender their passports while they await the outcome of criminal charges brought against them for a spill that took place off the coast of Rio de Janeiro last November. The company has also been sued for $11 billion in damages by a Brazilian federal prosecutor.
Chevron has issued a statement claiming the charges are "outrageous and without merit.” “We have sought to perform our operations in full compliance with Brazilian laws and industry practices and to comply with all applicable licenses and authorizations,” says a company press release issued Wednesday.
The jury is still out on the facts of the case. But it is hard to sympathize with a company that has played fast and loose with national justice systems in order to avoid paying compensation for toxic spills of immense proportions in the Ecuador by Texaco, a company that Chevron merged with in 2001.
Between 1964 to 1992 Texaco admitted to dumping more than 16 billion gallons of toxic “water of formation” into the streams and rivers used by local inhabitants for their drinking water, decimating indigenous groups and causing dramatically increased rates of cancer, according to a summary from Rainforest Action Network.