What does a multi-national company do when two Ecuadorians fighting against them win an award? They launch a PR battle attack. Pablo Fajardo and Luis Yanza were named the 2008 Goldman Environmental Prize recipients for their 14 year grassroots struggle against Chevron and the contamination that oil company has done against the country and people of Ecuador, specifically in the Amazon region.

In response, Chevron issued a press release and hold a press briefing saying that the company objects:

to the Goldman Foundation over its selection of personal injury lawyer Pablo Fajardo and his associate, Luis Yanza, who were revealed today as 2008 Goldman prize recipients. Chevron regrets that the organizers of the Goldman Environmental Prize were skillfully misled into naming Mr. Fajardo and Mr. Yanza as prize winners.

Chevron makes Fajardo sound like an ambulance chaser, no?
Chevron was quick to pass the buck:

These two men have twisted the facts in a legal case waged against Chevron for pure financial gain. Fictitious claims of cancer made by their associates have been thrown out of Federal Court in San Francisco. Mr. Fajardo and Mr. Yanza are ignoring the ongoing pollution in Ecuador by Petroecuador and are using it to seek billions of dollars in damages for decades ago operations in the region by Texaco Petroleum. Chevron became a convenient but unjust lawsuit target after it acquired Texaco in 2001.

We can trust Chevron, right?

Via / The Unapologetic Mexican and Environmental Leader