Mia Farrow visited the Aguarico region of Sucumbios in response to an invitation by the National Secretariat of Communications of Ecuador.
She was there to give her support to the international campaign “The Dirty Hand of Chevron”, which the president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, launched last September.
The local community was badly affected by the contamination created by oil seeping into the rivers. The government has blamed Chevron (formerly Texaco), which operated in Ecuador between 1964 and 1990.
Farrow said, “I feel an incredible sense of anger,” after being shown pools of the oil.
Following the custom of previous “celebrity activists”, Farrow symbolically dipped her hand in the oil during the tour.
Other personalities who have visited the sites recently include actor Danny Glover, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin of Richmond, California, and filmmaker Alexandra Cousteau.
Thousands of Ecuadoran villagers say they were sickened and got cancer as a result of contamination of the local water supply.
This is not the first “crusade” in which Mia Farrow has participated . She has also devoted time to other humanitarian efforts, primarily as an advocate for children’s rights in conflict affected regions.
She is also a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador and has worked extensively to draw attention to the fight to eradicate polio.
In February 2011, Chevron was ordered by the Superior Court of Nueva Loja to pay $18.3 billion for damages to the environment and the health of the local communities.
But, in November 2013, Ecuador’s Supreme Court, while confirming the decision, reduced the damages amount to $9.5 billion.
Anyway, Chevron refuses to pay the award, claiming that the ruling is illegitimate, and instead has filed a counter-claim in a federal court in New York against the Ecuadorians and their lawyers.
Now, after this photo-op, Mia Farrow can tick this of her list of “things to do” and move on to the next task.
