There's that nice Chevron ad again, well . . . .
Here's a nice Chevron story that dates back to at least 1972, when Texaco (since acquired by Chevron) started drilling in the home of the indigenous Cofan tribe in Ecuador.
The Cofan tribe is still pursuing justice and the clean-up of oil residue polluting their land and water, now via a $12 billion lawsuit against Chevron.
As recently reported for the BBC by Greg Palast -- you can see the video here
The Cofan’s leader, Emergildo Criollo, tells Palast that when Texaco Oil, now part of Chevron, came to the village in 1972, it obtained permission to drill by offering the Indians candy and cheese. The indigenous folk threw the funny-selling cheese into the jungle.
Criollo says his three-year son died from oil contamination after, "He went swimming, then began vomiting blood."
Chevron-Texaco's lawyer say the company cleaned up all its contaminated oil pits when it abandoned the country nearly 15 years ago except those pits it left in the hands of Ecuador's own state oil company.
More from Palast's BBC report:
What about the Indian kids dying of cancer?
Texaco lawyer Rodrigo Perez asks, "And it's the only case of cancer in the world? How many cases of children with cancer do you have in the States, in Europe, in Quito? If there is somebody with cancer there, they have to prove it was caused by crude or by petroleum industry and second they have to prove that it is OUR crude - which is absolutely impossible."
He added: "Scientifically, nobody has proved that crude causes cancer."
Even if the Indians can prove their case and win billions for the jungle clean-up, collecting the cash is another matter. Chevron has removed all its assets from Ecuador.
But, this week, the political planet tilts toward the natives as Alberto Acosta takes office as President of Ecuador's new Constitutional Assembly.
I spoke to Acosta - and he gave Chevron a tongue-lashing. "Chevron is responsible for environmental and social destruction in the Amazon. And that's why they're on trial."