Ecuador wants US judge reprimanded in Chevron case

Ecuador has asked a US appeals court to chastise a New York judge for belittling the country's justice system and mocking the indigenous community, which recently won an $18-billion case against Chevron.

In an unprecedented step by a foreign government, Ecuador has joined the legal case filed against the US oil giant as "friends of the court." Chevron is fighting in the US courts to block the sum awarded to the indigenous communities in Ecuador.

At trial, an Ecuadorian court found that Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic waste into the Amazon, affecting indigenous communities and causing increased rates of cancer and other oil-related diseases.

Chevron, which agreed to have the case heard in Ecuador, pulled out of the country before the monetary damages were awarded. After the citizens filed a complaint in a US District Court, Chevron began its legal maneuvers to block any attempts to collect the money.

Judge Lewis A. Kaplan wrote his ruling siding with Chevron's view that Ecuador's court system was broken.

"The undisguised castigation of, and lack of respect afforded, the Ecuadorian justice system by the District Court runs counter to long-established jurisprudential norms," wrote lawyers for the Ecuadorian government in a filing on Monday.