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Bechtel suffered something of a defeat recently in New York City
when it was decided (possibly because of negative publicity) not
to award it a lucrative contract for supervising the continuing cleanup
of the WTC site.
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Right to Water ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) Posted: 12/18/2001
By [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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From: Jim Shultz <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE
"BECHTEL CORP. VS. BOLIVIA'S POOR"
Volume 41 - December 18, 2001
Dear Readers:
This holiday season many of us will once again see or read
Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" and the tale of that symbol of
selfishness and greed - Scrooge. Below is the tale of a real-life,
modern day Scrooge - Bechtel Enterprises. Most of you will remember
that two years ago a Bechtel subsidiary took over control of the water
system here in Cochabamba. The company doubled and tripled water
rates for the poor and was finally forced to leave after a wave of
protests that left a 17-year-old boy dead and hundreds of others
injured. Well, the Scrooges at Bechtel are back for more. Last
month the company initiated a $25 million legal action against the
people of Bolivia for what it says are its losses from the Bolivian water
revolt.
Below is a letter which I am sending today to Mr. Riley Bechtel,
the company's chief owner and CEO. I hope you will read it and pass
it along. If you feel moved to let Mr. Bechtel (and his public relations
department) know how you feel about the corporation's latest action
against the poor of Bolivia, you can send him a quick note yourself at
(just click on the link below):
mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED],[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Please also "cc" us at: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Happy holidays to all!
Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center
An Open Letter To Mr. Riley Bechtel
CEO, Bechtel Enterprises
Dear Mr. Bechtel,
Having heard from your public relations department I have
decided to write to you directly, from Cochabamba, Bolivia, a city
you know well. It was here two years ago that a Bechtel subsidiary
took over the public water system and, within weeks, doubled and
tripled water rates for some of the poorest families in South America.
Your company ordered mothers living on minimum wage of $60 per
month to pay $15 or more just to keep water running out of the tap.
Faced, quite literally, with a choice between water or food, people
took to the streets to demand that rates be lowered. Your company
refused. The Bolivian government sent soldiers into the streets to
defend your contract. A 17 year old, Victor Hugo Daza, was shot
in the face and killed. More than a hundred others were seriously
wounded. I was there. I saw it happen.
In the end, in April 2000, your company left. It had to. The
protests and the government's violent response wouldn't end until
you were gone. Your subordinates didn't leave empty handed.
They took the hard drives from the computers, the cash left in the
company's accounts, and sensitive personnel files from before their
time. They also left behind an unpaid electric bill for $90,000.
Now your company says it wants more. Last month you filed a demand
of $25 million against the Bolivian people. Your lawyers are claiming
as losses the millions of dollars in potential profits you had hoped
to make and weren't allowed to.
I understand that, overlooking the glorious San Francisco Bay
from your Beale Street headquarters, you have a different perspective.
Your company paid lawyers some large, undisclosed sum to set up
a company in the Cayman Islands and then to represent you in a behind-
closed-doors, one-bidder competition. You then paid some water
managers from England to come here and run things. They served you
more poorly than you can imagine, creating a social crisis so severe
that your company was forced to leave. Now Bechtel and its affiliates
want cash.
Imagine, if you will, how the situation appears to the Bolivians
who experienced it directly. Your company came here, charged
people rates they could never afford and which your company knew
in advance would create just the sort of violent convulsions that it did.
As one of your associates euphemistically said to me in a letter, "a
rapid increase [in water prices] would be difficult socially." When
asked reasonably to lower rates, your company refused. When those
rates sent the entire city into a violent crisis, your managers hid out
in a five star hotel, content to let soldiers fire live rounds at those
protesting your presence here. Now, after all the death, harm and
suffering it has already caused here, Bechtel has the arrogance to
add on to that a claim of financial damages against these same
people.
Few here doubt that Bechtel is capable, through legal trickery
and firepower, of squeezing millions of dollars out of the Bolivian
treasury. Once again, you will sit down behind closed doors with
Bolivian government officials, this time in a World Bank-sponsored
arbitration. The government here has budgeted $50,000 to hire U.S.
lawyers to represent them, probably not quite what you have at your
disposal. The Bolivian President, desperate to look friendly to foreign
investment, will be eager to write your company a check and bring
things to an end. Your losses, however you may calculate them, are
numbers on a ledger. Mrs. Daza's loss is buried in a cemetery. No
one will be representing her in your arbitrations.
For Bechtel, with revenues of more than $14 billion annually,
$25 million is what you take in before lunch on any given workday.
What does your legal action mean for the people of Bolivia, for the
families that already suffered so deeply once because of Bechtel's
involvement in their lives? Here in Bolivia $25 million is the annual
cost to hire 3,000 rural doctors, 12,000 public school teachers, or
hooking up 125,000 families who don't have access to the public
water system. Which of these are you suggesting Bolivia should do
without in order to pay you?
Your public relations department denies Bechtel responsibility
in this matter, claiming that you are only a minority shareholder in
the subsidiary that did business here. That is convenient. The whole
company is owned by minority shareholders. Bechtel, however, is
the largest among them. Surely, one of the most important lessons that
we, as parents, try to teach our children is about taking responsibility
for our actions. Corporations should be held to no less a standard.
If the buck does not stop with you, Mr. Bechtel, the head of the
corporation with the largest stake, then who is responsible?
So, you have a choice. You can direct your public relations
staff to make glib statements about fairness, while your lawyers
take aim at Bolivia's poor, or you can do something extraordinary.
You can decide that the Bechtel has already done enough damage
here and you can rescind your demand and your legal action. You
could even do so on condition that the Bolivian government agrees
to dedicate that $25 million to directly serving the poor. From out
my window, Mr. Bechtel, I see the old man who has been bent
over building a new street curb all week. He couldn't afford to
pay your water rates and now he and his children can't afford to
pay your demand for compensation. Your corporate mission statement
declares Bechtel's commitment to work with communities, "to help
improve the standard of living and the quality of life." In Bolivia,
by any definition imaginable, Bechtel has failed that standard
miserably. The decision is yours as to whether to repeat that
mistake again.
Sincerely,
Jim Shultz
Cochabamba, Bolivia
_________________________________
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