Senior Brazilian Official Backs Chevron in Oil Pollution Case

Seeking to avoid payment of a disputed $9.5 billion pollution judgment in Ecuador, Chevron won a round in Brazil. Last week, a senior Brazilian legal official recommended that his nation's courts refuse to enforce the Ecuadorian judgment. The recommendation isn't binding on the Brazilian judiciary, and lawyers for the alleged Ecuadorian victims are continuing to pursue enforcement in other countries.

The maneuvering in Latin America is part of a 22-year-long legal war pitting Ecuadorian farmers and indigenous tribe members against Chevron. In February 2011, a provincial trial court in Ecuador ruled that the American oil company was liable for decades of contamination in the rain forest east of the Andes Mountains. Higher Ecuadorian courts upheld the liability finding.