How much money does it take to perpetuate the Chevron Ecuador fraud? Well, let’s ask Ecuador or in Twitter lingo #AskEcuador! Of course, Ecuador President Rafael Correa will yell at you, but let’s #AskEcuador anyway!
As it turns out, at least $200,000 for one day of Twitter advertising and a payment of $85 a piece for each protestor at appear as if they were ‘really concerned’ about the environment in Lago Agrio, Ecuador.
That’s what it cost the Government of Ecuador, Amazon Watch, Karen Hinton and Frente de defensa de la Amazonia and other front groups shilling for disgraced plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Donziger.
And if you think about it, the protestors were there for the entire day, so that’s about $10 per hour. At least that beats the Texas current minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, proving that protesting is the job of the future in America.
The story got exposed yesterday at Chevron Annual Shareholders Meeting in Midland, Texas, both in the national media where Ecuador shill organizations The Toxic Effect (really, the AmazonWatch organization) paid $200,000 for a sponsored Twiter hastag #AskChevron to perpetuate the fraud that was exposed in the verdict against Donziger and Ecuador plaintiffs earlier this year in the Second District Court.
Then, to make matters worse for the Ecuador-sponsored ‘fake protests,’ a Texas television station exposed that ‘protestors’ were being paid $85 to ‘protest’ in against Chevron and in favor of the Government of Ecuador.
$200,000 For Twitter Campaign?
Yes, a Twitter promoted hashtag campaign now costs $200,000, as of a year ago. According to All Things D, (that’s such an in-elegant name for a blog), the price went up 33 percent over 2012 prices.
The point is, between this Twitter campaign, paying the protestors, and flying personalities like Mia Farrow and Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin into Ecuador to drink the Kool-Aid President Correa’s making, there’s a multi-million effort going on, and all of it paid for by the Government of Ecuador, and to a New York-based public relations firm.
And while that goes on, Ecuador continues to drill for oil right in the middle of the lands and the places of the Ecuadorians Correa then says he’s protecting.
Kool-Aid, anyone?