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Mother Who Testified About Toxic Pollution in Chevron Rainforest Trial Dies of Cancer [Ecuador]
A woman with three teen-aged children from a community in the Amazon rainforest known as the “cancer zone” has died of the fatal disease just months after accusing Chevron in court testimony of having dumped tons of toxic waste near her small farm. Maria del Carmen Villota Mainaguez, 42...died on Nov. 8 after battling uterine cancer for two years. Her father, Faustino Villota, also died of cancer four years ago...after drinking tainted water for years near the family farm. The class action civil lawsuit where Villota testified...accuses the oil giant of having dumped 18 billion gallons of toxic waste into the rainforest and abandoned approximately 1,000 open-air waste pits filled with toxic sludge and oil waste. Texaco, which was bought by Chevron in 2001, built and operated 350 wells in the area from 1964 to 1992...According to Rosa Moreno, a nurse in San Carlos, 27 town residents have died of cancer...in the area.