Amazon Watch the trial court judgment in a 222-page decision that documented the extensive and life-threatening levels of oil pollution at dozens of former Chevron well sites in the jungle. In all, eight appellate judges in Ecuador reviewed the evidence against Chevron and affirmed the judgment as well as dismissing Chevron's allegation of fraud. When Chevron refused to comply with the $9.5 billion judgment against it for contamination in the Lago Agrio oil field, the plaintiffs' lead attorney, Steven R. Donziger, attempted to collect the judgment in Brazil, Argentina, and Canada. Chevron then filed suit in the United States, and relying on
Corruption in Ecuador forms of corruption. Judges do not act independently, and judicial proceedings can be lengthy, confusing, and inconclusive. The system is compromised by the fact that the Judicial Council, the judiciary's governing body, is run by an intimate of Correa's, Gustavo Jalkh, who was the president's private secretary. “Corruption, inefficiency, and political influence have plagued the Ecuadorian judiciary for many years,” stated Human Rights Watch in 2012. According to the "Daily Mail", Ecuador “has a Byzantine legal framework” with an overcrowded prison system, and many of those imprisoned being political opponents of Correa's. In 2011 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights