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Chevron's Goose to Face a Gander by Ecuador
Evidence that Chevron used to avert responsibility for oil contamination in the Amazon may also serve to support the $19 billion verdict, the 5th Circuit ruled. Residents of the Amazonian rainforest, who call themselves the "Afectados," or "affected ones," have been engaged in a two-decade battle with Chevron over oil drilling by its predecessor, Texaco, between 1964 and 1992…Chevron condemned the [Ecuadorian] judgment as fraudulent in lawsuits on three continents, appealing the verdict in Ecuador, filing extortion claims in New York and pursuing international arbitration in Europe…A group of Ecuadoreans known as the Huaorani had moved to intervene in Chevron's extortion suit late last year, but U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan found that such intervention "would delay and complicate the resolution of an already complicated case."…Their attorney…filed a 47-page complaint in New York County Supreme Court on Wednesday.