Amazon Watch an earlier court's dismissal on the basis of "forum non conveniens." Thus, legal proceedings were started in Ecuador in 2003. Amazon Watch supports the Ecuadorian plaintiffs by publishing a press kit alleging that Chevron (corporate successor to Texaco) should be held accountable for the dumping of of toxic waste water into a region of Ecuador's Amazon rainforest inhabited by more than 30,000 people – purported to be one of the largest oil related contaminations ever, far exceeding that of the Exxon Valdez disaster. A 2011 decision in Ecuador ordered Chevron to pay $9.5 billion. Ecuador's Supreme Court in 2013 affirmed
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