The plaintiffs, affected by the over thirty years of extractive activities, estimate that repairing the damage caused would take from 40 to 90 billion dollars, according to the Amazon Defense Coalition´s website, one of the groups which filed the complaint against the powerful corporation.

The multinational company has been trying to deny their responsibility in the environmental crimes committed in Orellana and Sucumbios provinces.

The company is charging at the government of Ecuador, especially state company Petroecuador, and argues that it has withdrawn all investments from the country, authorized by previous administrations.

The attempts by the company to delay the trial are being successful: the case was ten years on US courts and seven years in Ecuador –including six different judges and three challenges, and the victims continue waiting.

The organizations consider that the 54 judicial inspections carried out on the polluted territories should be enough evidence of the damage caused by Chevron-Texaco. Ecuador´s president, Rafael Correa, has expressed its strong support to the communities, and has questioned the judicial tricks by the oil corporation.

In an interview with Spanish news program Mas Voces, leader Ermel Chavez from the Amazon Defense Coalition, denounced that the hydrocarbon pollution by Chevron-Texaco has resulted in the death of around 500 people, while 1500 others are ill.

During the company´s operations –from the 60s to the 90s, in a concession of 1 million hectares of forest- the company used inappropriate technology to save billions of dollars. “They came as if this was an empty territory, but indigenous communities lived here. They used the worst available technology”, said Chavez.