Taking on the Scrooges of Seville -- Abengoa

This morning The Democracy Center launched a new global campaign to pressure the last corporate holdout to drop the Bechtel case against the people of Cochabamba, a demand for $25 million from Bolivia’s poor. The good news is that, according to the Bolivian government (in an interview I carried out last week), Bechtel is now ready to drop the case, for a token payment of what amounts to thirty cents! This is clearly the result of all of the public pressure people around the world have put on Bechtel and it would be a huge victory for Bolivians and the people who have helped fight on their behalf.

Now we turn our attention to Bechtel’s investment partner, another corporate giant, Abengoa of Spain. Abengoa, based in Seville, has refused to follow Bechtel’s lead to abandon the case. This morning I sent out a request to our readers worldwide to begin e-mailing the company’s chief executives and demand that they drop their case – currently pending before a secretive World Bank trade court. In less than twelve hours more than a hundred people have already written to them!

If you haven’t written yet and would like to, here’s how:

1) Highlight and copy the text below:

Felipe Benjumea Llorente
Javier Benjumea Llorente
Chairmen, The Abengoa Corporation

Along with thousands of others across the world I believe that it is unjustified and unconscionable that you and Abengoa continue to demand $25 million from the people of Bolivia, some of the poorest families on earth. Your water company in Bolivia has already done enormous damage to the Bolivian people, including the death of a 17 year old boy. If you and Abengoa have any sense of decency and morality you will drop your World Bank case against Bolivia and do so immediately. I look forward to hearing your response.

2) Please add your name at the bottom and feel free to add to or edit the note anyway you like. Then send it to these addresses below (a copy will come to us at The Democracy Center).

abengoa@abengoa.com;info@democracyctr.org

We’ll keep everyone up to date on this through both our email newsletter and here on the Blog. For the full story on the case and the Bolivian water revolt click here.