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Article

18 Apr 2008

Author:
Lisa Richardson, Opinion L.A. blog, Los Angeles Times

Rumble in the jungle: Amazon pollution lawsuit leaves L.A. for Peru

Tomas Maynas, an elder of the Achuar tribe in the Peruvian Amazon...was in [Los Angeles recently] to urge a federal court judge not to send [a lawsuit against Occidental Petroleum] to Peru. Peru's court system is so biased against indigenous people and riddled with corruption, he said, that it would give short shrift to the tribe's allegations that Oxy polluted the Achuar's lands and sickened the people. Though he didn't get the chance to address Judge Philip Gutierrez, Maynas…[said] in a news conference that the indigenous peoples of Peru could only get a fair trial in L.A. If that's true, then Occidental has just won Round 1… Gutierrez has ruled it belongs in Peru. [also refers to Chevron lawsuit in Ecuador]

Part of the following timelines

Lawsuit against Occidental over pollution in Amazon to be heard in Peru, not USA

Occidental lawsuit (re Achuar communities contamination, Peru)