Added: Jan 22, 2008
From: freedomlost2007
Duration: 9:59
When I was sent to Ecuador as a Peace Corps volunteer in 1968, Texaco had just gone into Ecuador, and the promise to the Ecuadorian people at that time from Texaco and their own politicians and the World Bank was oil is going to pull this country out of poverty. And people believed it. I believed it at the time. The exact opposite has happened. Oil has made the country much more impoverished, while Texaco has made fortunes off this. It's also destroyed vast areas of the Amazon rainforest. So the lawsuit today that's being brought by a New York lawyer and some Ecuadorian lawyers—Steve Donziger here in New York—is for $6 billion, the largest environmental lawsuit in the history of the world, in the name of 30,000 Ecuadorian people against Texaco, which is now owned by Chevron, for dumping over eighteen billion gallons of toxic waste into the Ecuadorian rainforest. That's thirty times more than the Exxon Valdez. And dozens and dozens of people have died and are continuing to die of cancer and other pollution-related diseases in this area of the Amazon. So all this oil has come out of this area, and it's the poorest area of one of the poorest countries in the hemisphere. And the irony of that is just so amazing. But what I think—one of the really significant things about this, Amy, is that this law firm has taken this on, not pro bono, but they expect if they win the case, which they expect to do, to make a lot of money off of it, which is a philosophical decision. It isn't because they wanted to get rich off this. It's because they want to encourage other law firms to do similar things in Nigeria and in Indonesia and in Bolivia, in Venezuela and many other places. So they want to see a business grow out of this, of law firms going in and defending poor people, knowing that they can get a payoff from the big companies who have acted so terribly, terribly, terribly irresponsibly in the past. And Steve Donziger, the attorney—I was in Ecuador with him just two weeks ago—and one of the very touching things he said is—he's an American attorney with, you know, very good credentials, and he says, "You know, I've seen a lot of companies make mistakes and then try to defend themselves in law courts." And he said, "That's one thing. But in this case, Texaco didn't make mistakes. This was done with intent. They knew what they were doing. To save a few bucks, they killed a lot of people." And now they're going to be forced to pay for that, to take responsibility for that, and hopefully open the door to make many companies take responsibility for the wanton destruction that's occurred. in the case of Jaime Roldos, he won the election by a landslide, and now he started to put into action his policy, his promises, and was going to tax the oil companies. If they weren't willing to give much more of their profits back to the Ecuadorian people, then he threatened to nationalize them. So I was sent down, along with other economic hit men—I played a fairly minor role in that case and a major one in Panama with Torrijos—but we were sent into these countries to get these men to change their policies, to go against their own campaign promises. And basically what you do is you tell them, "Look, you know, if you play our game, I can make you and your family very healthy. I can make sure that you get very rich. If you don't play our game, if you follow your campaign promises, you may go the way of Allende in Chile or Arbenz in Guatemala or Lumumba in the Congo." On and on, we can list all these presidents that we've either overthrown or assassinated because they didn't play our game. But Jaime would not come around, Jaime Roldos. He stayed uncorruptible, as did Omar Torrijos. And both of these—and from an economic hit man perspective, this was very disturbing, because not only did I know I was likely to fail at my job, but I knew that if I failed, something dire was going to happen: the jackals would come in, and they would either overthrow these men or assassinate them. And in both cases, these men were assassinated, I have no doubt. They died in airplane crashes two months apart from each other in 1981—single plane; their own private planes crashed.
Channel: Howto
Tags: advisors assassination banks cia conspiracy consultants corporation nsa perkins wto
Rating: 4.85 (26 ratings) Views: 7016' favoriteCount='49 Comments: 25
agfigueroaa Says:
Mar 23, 2008 - Thanks for posting this. I am Chilean. Plenty were killed on the coup in 1973, and later. The problem is that people does not know the facts... true facts.
freedomlost2007 Says:
Mar 23, 2008 - Are you afraid of American?
agfigueroaa Says:
Apr 2, 2008 - No. Should I?
freedomlost2007 Says:
Apr 2, 2008 - :) I don't know the answer to that question. I am American and my country scares me....
Promxious95 Says:
Apr 22, 2008 - this nigga looks just like bush...
MrDamando Says:
Apr 24, 2008 - Bullshit, the arab word has not been the jewish peoples' traditional enemy. Jews were allies in many cases with muslims
letparadise Says:
Apr 26, 2008 - Just two comments. I haven't finished viewing this video. Mr. Perkins says what the US is doing in Iraq is the same as what China is doing in Tibet. Absolutely wrong. China is suppressing Tibetan culture and language, forcing Tibetan children to learn Chinese, and moving masses of Chinese into Tibet. There is no analogy to what the US is doing in Iraq. His comments on Israel are also off the mark and are really unhelpful.
donttrustany1 Says:
Apr 29, 2008 - He may look like the so called president...but looking like someone or not has nothing to do with the facts this dude is spitting....dont take his or my word for it, LOOK IT UP!
danbuck333 Says:
May 27, 2008 - yeah but the usa is shooting, killing and blowing the country to bits, so even though they are different they are both ridiculus
letparadise Says:
May 28, 2008 - I'm not trying to tell you going into Iraq the way we did was a wise move on the US's part, but the people who are exploding bombs in the marketplaces and shooting people on a whim using the rationale of religion are not the Americans. I was only pointing out that what Perkins says cannot be taken at face value. His reasoning is flawed, although I agree with many points he makes.
letparadise Says:
May 28, 2008 - That's right. Bash your country in international forums. That's why the Left is seen as pusillanimous. Try living under governments in China, Russia, Iran, and others who desire to be the # 1 world power. As long as the US is predominant you can project all the faux "scardiness" you want, while getting upset when Starbuck's runs out of latte. Get some perspective. With a its flaws you better hope the US never goes down. The replacement will be a bummer.
tad5000 Says:
May 29, 2008 - Isnt it interesting that guys like John Perkins and Scott McClellan only wait until the tide turns before having their moral revelations. They conveniently make a mint from their book sales and act as if they are "doing the right thing" when the right thing is not to be involved in wrongdoing in the first place. For us to praise them is ridiculous. They both did whatever was most expedient to make the most money at any given time. It takes true character to take a stand when most is at risk.
nittenichiryu Says:
Jun 21, 2008 - "on a whim using the rationale of religion" No. Please dont bring the Religion into this. Its the People. NOT the Teaching.
lrvives Says:
Jul 6, 2008 - It all sounds like what the OPEC is doing to America with oil prices!
HLMSR Says:
Aug 2, 2008 - Oh shameful America. They say Africa can't develop, while earlier colonialism, now the USA is pillaging them. I am really sorry about African's who fight our wars, who enter famine while we enjoy pillaging and killing them.
zennie62 Says:
Aug 15, 2008 - But to not point the oil spill finger at Petroecuador is criminal, let alone not mention them in the discussion
kahman95 Says:
Sep 10, 2008 - I feel this way a lot. I'm reminded of an episode of ER I saw today when black doctor gets upset that latino doctor always "rides him too hard" BD: Why do you ride me? LD: Because you're good, but I think you can be better. And so it is with America.
GKF042 Says:
Oct 16, 2008 - What an ignorant fuck.Wish it was your family have'ing there life's ruined,if you can't help at least show some compassion.
R396 Says:
Oct 17, 2008 - See this is a typical mentally retarded liberal answer that you posted. I don't know why you give a fuck? Go fuck yourself and your "do gooder" liberal PC attitude.
HLMSR Says:
Oct 17, 2008 - latparadise, I do not agree. Why does not the US mind its own business? It is great and it should just feed and govern its own people rather than focus on imperialist motives. Do you know how many people in the USA are starving? Yes, the media does not tell us. But there are people who are so much worse off, and they need to be taken care of. I hate imperialism, its one of the reasons that terrorists hate the US and want to bomb its ass.
R396 Says:
Oct 17, 2008 - No it is not a reason why terrorists hate us. Islamic terrorism has no roots in poverty, but rather roots in a caliphate and sharia law. You are grasping at straws by making that statement. Islamists hate America because they deem are freedoms and lifestyles as corrupt. They look at us as crusaders, and hate modernity. Personally I don't give a fuck why they hate us cause they can go fuck themselves.
seanotube85 Says:
Oct 25, 2008 - Here's how it works dude: War makes money for the elite world rulers (the G8). The Saudis are working hand in hand with our government to perpetuate greed and wealth for the super-elite so that they'll always be in power. The Saudis create terrorist groups who buy LOTS of guns. The US needs guns too to fight their war on terror. So do the Jews/etc. Everyone's fighting/killing-the war machine makes billions. The Saudi elite get theirs and so do the US elite. They keep their power an hold us down.
RamandoDMag Says:
Oct 26, 2008 - Hmm, massive ignorance or just extreme unintelligence? This person reminds me of the people in history who supported slavery in the U.S. or Hitler's rule in Germany.
lawharrison Says:
Nov 5, 2008 - Thank you for coming forward, it was the right thing to do.
freedomlost2007 Says:
Mar 11, 2008 - Many hugs to you from this woman here in Florida. Yes, we have a criminal in our White House and it is sadder than people in other countries imagine.