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Firstly, good afternoon. My name is Ramiro Aguinda, one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit against ChevronTexaco.
We are in the community of Rumipamba, in Coca, at approximately kilometer 58 in via El Auca, in Dayuma Parish.
We’ve lived here for about thirty years.
We’ve lived here since before Texaco’s arrival.
We followed the newly constructed road from Coca to here. Texaco came afterward to this region.
Well, this is very grave for me. Because I have heard Texaco is claiming it left no contamination here.
That it didn’t contaminate. But this area has been contaminated for more than twenty years.
We’re suffering here, because our children are suffering from diseases.
Sometimes the children don’t really pay attention; they’re walking around barefoot.
Chevron says they didn’t contaminate, that they left the area very clean, that they didn’t cause any damages.
But those of us who live here, we are very affected by diseases.
But Chevron, living elsewhere as they are, they claim we’re lying.
That is a lie. Because those of us who live here have endured more than twenty years of suffering.
Firstly, seeing how the company Texaco left this contamination,
we united with our brothers and sisters to file this lawsuit against Texaco so that they clean up.
Because another company shouldn’t have to clean this up, it’s not their damage.
So we want them to come here and clean up this mess.
And that’s why we have been united for more than seventeen years in this struggle.
I completely reject the lawsuit that ChevronTexaco has filed against the plaintiffs. I reject it. Why?
Because we’re not lying. As if we’re the ones who are lying, as if we are the criminals...
as if we were thugs, they file a lawsuit over there against us.
What we are saying is true. We are here in an area, as we’re seeing here,
that is very contaminated with a lot of crude oil.
And we’re here and Texaco files this lawsuit. I completely reject their lawsuit.