San Ramon, California-based Chevron is on trial in Lago Agrio, 180 kilometers east of the capital, Quito, for allegedly failing to clean up billions of gallons (liters) of toxic wastewater.

The plaintiffs are seeking US$6 billion in damages, claiming that Texaco Petroleum Co., which merged with Chevron in 2001 and spent three decades extracting oil here, dumped more than 18 billion gallons (68 billion liters) of oily wastewater into the rain forest, and failed to properly clean it up.

"Obviously they're suffering severely,'' she said by telephone from her hotel in the jungle town. "A whole host of horrors have come their way with the advent of supposed civilization.'' -Neftegaz.ru