Nemagon Case Taken up in Venezuela

Lawyers for former banana workers poisoned by the US-banned insecticide Nemagon announced that Venezuelan Supreme Court has accepted their case to collect millions in compensation for former banana workers awarded by a Nicaraguan court in 2002. Plaintiffs have attempted to collect on their judgment against Shell Chemical Company, Dow Chemical Company, and Standard Fruit Company (Dole) in Ecuador, Colombia, Paraguay, and the US without success. Nemagon causes sterility, pain, cancer and birth defects. Banana and sugar cane workers have been camped at the National Assembly for weeks demanding justice, but both the Bolaños government and the National Assembly have ignored their pleas.

According to Benjamin Chavez Romero, spokesman of the Ogesa law firm, the Venezuelan Supreme Court accepted the case for collection against the three transnational companies on Apr. 24. The Supreme Court issued a ruling on Apr. 25 that gives the three companies ten days to present themselves before the Court to respond to the Justices questions. Otherwise, plants, products, and bank assets of the companies could be impounded.