5-28-08 by dugan
Faced with ticked-off shareholders and demonstrators from Ecuador and Nigeria today, Chevron CEO and Chairman David O’Reilly lost his temper at a Nigerian protest leader. The protests over Chevron’s behavior in Ecuador, Nigeria and Myanmar overshadowed O’Reilly’s crowing about profits and the crushing of shareholder revolts like those at Exxon’s meeting.
O’Reilly, after scolding the Nigerian who had been shot by Chevron-paid soldiers, griped at the Myanmar protesters that Chevron had donated $2 million to relief in the flood-stricken nation. Chevron’s natural gas investment in Myanmar is dependent on the nation’s brutal military leaders, so the donations (to various do-good groups who haven’t been allowed to even enter the former Burma) were not accompanied by any condemnation of the regime’s Chevron-supported corruption, suppression and ineptitude. Much less Chevron’s withdrawal of its tainted investment.