SHUSHUFINDI, Ecuador (CN) - An elderly man who inspired Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa's initiative to relocate people outside of oil exploitation zones wept during an interview about his current lack of food, medical care, or even a wheelchair.
The story of 78-year-old Manuel Salinas has been one of the most visible, heartbreaking and contested tales of the life in the oil-producing region of Ecuador's Oriente region.
It was seven years ago when then newly elected President Rafael Correa embraced the elderly Salinas as his first public expression of support for the indigenous and campesino Amazon residents suing Chevron over decades of drilling by its predecessor, Texaco.
Documentary filmmaker Joseph Berlinger captured that meeting in his controversial documentary "Crude," and CBS interviewed Salinas for an in-depth episode of "60 Minutes."
Salinas said that Texaco's crude oil seeped into his well and gave him undiagnosed stomach pains.
"The world needs to know about this," Correa said in the documentary, to the flutter of cameras snapping photos.
Correa's administration later relocated Salinas and hundreds of other families living in nearby oil-exploitation areas to towns like Shushufindi Central, where an official plaque commemorating that encounter still shines on the facade of Salinas' government-gifted home.
"But now, [Salinas] is very bad," said Donald Moncayo, who has led a "Toxic Tour" of the Amazon since litigation against Chevron started here in 2003. Salinas' house was the last stop Moncayo made Friday, in the first leg of one such tour.
Though Salinas' scaly skin that Moncayo said looked "like a fish" cleared up when he moved to his new home, Salinas said his other ailments have not relented. Stomach pains and mobility problems that have plagued Salinas for eight years, but he cannot afford to replace his walker with a wheelchair.
As it started to rain, his eyes welled up as he turned to speak privately with Moncayo, who later said that Salinas was complaining about his feeling of helplessness and dependence on others.
Chevron has long denied any responsibility for Salinas' suffering, saying that tests proved the well water's safety and that Salinas was used as part a high-profile media campaign to extort a settlement.
The San Ramon-based oil giant gained access to outtakes from "Crude" during discovery proceedings, and it got a scientist who criticized the company on "60 Minutes" to renounce those remarks in federal court.
U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan cited these developments in his finding this month that the $9.5 billion judgment against Chevron was "procured by corrupt means." Though cleaning up the Oriente would be "desireable and overdue," Kaplan said, he called the penalty against Chevron the product of bribery and extortion.
Appealing the decision, lawyers for the Ecuadoreans have said that Kaplan was wrong on the facts and the law, and they moved Tuesday for an emergency stay.
News of these courtroom battles has apparently not made it, however, to remote Shushufindi Central.
Salinas said he did not understand what Kaplan's decision was. Another Shushufindi Central resident, 65-year-old Juana Villafuente, had visible bumps on her feet and lower legs.