...[A] three-member investor-state arbitration panel found in favor of oil giant Chevron, ruling that the Republic of Ecuador violated a trade agreement with the U.S. when the country's courts found Chevron guilty for deliberately dumping 16 billion gallons of toxic waste in the Amazon rainforest from 1964 to 1990.  The panel ruled that Ecuador violated the treaty by allowing its court system to issue a $9.5 billion judgment against the company...After an exhaustive eight-year process which reviewed tens of thousands of soil and water samples, health studies, witness testimony...the Ecuadorian courts ruled against Chevron...Rather than abide by its agreement, the oil giant filed a RICO suit in the U.S., alleging fraud in the Ecuadorian trial...

Amazon Watch Associate Director Paul Paz y Miño made the following statement in response to the ruling: "It is absurd that an international trade tribunal can circumvent a sovereign democratic nation's independent judiciary. Ecuadorian courts were essentially found guilty of considering the evidence against Chevron and holding the company to account"...