Indigenous Peruvians Win Right to Sue in US Court

Indigenous amazonians suing Occidental Petroleum for environmental damage to the rainforest were given the go ahead on December 6th by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to pursue their claims in Los Angeles federal court. Los Angeles is the headquarters of the international oil company. The Achaur's claims were dismissed by a lower federal court that ruled the cause should be litigated in Peru, but the federal appeals court disagreed. The Peruvian judiciary has never awarded compensation for environmental harm to indigenous people.  The Ninth Circuit cited "the general corruption in the Peruvian judicial system", and a lack of practical remedy for plaintiffs in Peru.  Plaintiffs allege that Occidental caused severe injury to their environment by dumping a daily average of 850,000 barrels of toxic waste water into the rainforest and waterways over a 30 year period, inducing acid rain by flaring gas, and improperly storing waste in unlined pits causing widespread lead and cadmium poisoning. The case, Carijano v. Occidental Petroleum, was originally filed in May 2007 in the US District Court for the Central District of California.