A billion-dollar lawsuit
against the firm was brought by the lawyers
for 30,000 Ecuadoreans, who say a Texaco subsidiary - which later
merged
with Chevron - poured contaminated waste water into open pits.
The plaintiffs say the
company's activities have destroyed large areas
of rainforest and also led to an increased risk of cancer among
the local
population.
ChevronTexaco denies the
accusations, and its lawyers say the company
had cleaned up the area after drilling the oil.
The trial began after almost
a decade of legal battles in the United
States ended with a US appeals court ruling that the dispute should
be
heard in Ecuador.
Environmentalists hopes
the case will set a precedent forcing
companies operating in the developing world to comply with the same
anti-pollution standards as in the industrialised nations.
'Irreparable damage'
Ecuadorian Indian groups
say Texaco - which merged with Chevron in
2001 - dumped more than 18 billion of gallons of toxic materials
into
unlined pits and Amazon rivers from 1972 to 1992.
As a result, they say,
crops were damaged, farm animals killed and
cancer has increased among the local population.
As the trial opened, hundreds
of Indians in body paint and feathers
marched outside the courthouse in Lago Agrio, about 180 kilometres
(110
miles) northeast from the capital, Quito.
"It is irreparable
damage," Jose Aguilar, a local settler, was quoted
as saying by the Associated Press news agency.
"Everything has been
damaged. People have died. Everything has been
lost," Mr Aguilar added.
Company's defence
The company has said that
after leaving the country it spent $40m in a
clean-up project that was inspected and approved by the Ecuadorean
Government.
The company also has been
arguing that environmental damage was
minimal and that oil production water had been treated before being
released into the environment.
But on Tuesday, Judge Alberto
Guerra rejected an opening challenge to
the court's authority by the oil company's lawyers, who argued that
the
judge did not have the authority to bring ChevronTexaco trial for
alleged
damage caused by Texaco.
Legal experts say that
with appeals and challenges on procedural
matters, the case could drag on for months.
