Crude Awakening by Michael D. Goldhaber

Author:Michael D. Goldhaber [ Goldhaber, Michael D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: RosettaBooks
Published: 2014-10-03T00:00:00+00:00

The Ghostwriter on the Stand

Alberto Guerra cut a far more dignified figure on the stand than he did in the joshing and wheedling tapes with Rivero. He wore a dark well-fitting suit, and knew his lines as well as a bright man ought to after preparing three or four days a week for three months. Doubtless his affect was practiced too—but the deep-set lines at the corners of his face, where his mouth set into a somber frown, betrayed the habits of a lifetime. Guerra’s face conveyed genuine depth of emotion. Was it remorse or merely shame?

In dialogue with Mastro, Guerra related his sordid career as Zambrano’s serial ghostwriter and go-between. The moment Zambrano took over the case, Guerra approached Chevron with an offer to fix it, only to be rebuffed. Guerra testified that he then approached local plaintiffs counsel Pablo Fajardo, who responded to the overtures enthusiastically. Meeting at the corner of Avenida Rio Coca and Avenida 6 de Diciembre in Quito, Guerra agreed to throw some motions plaintiffs’ way in return for monthly payments of $1,000. Soon after, Guerra says he confirmed the deal with Fajardo, Donziger, and Luis Yanza at the Honey & Honey—a traditional restaurant serving Ecuadorian braised goat stew and Ecuadorian fried pork stew.

“Did you understand that you were violating Ecuadorian law?” asked Mastro.

“It hurts me to say so, but yes,” replied Guerra.

According to Guerra, both he and the Lago Agrio plaintiffs upheld their ends of the deal. Guerra ghostwrote a couple of dozen orders for Zambrano in the Chevron case, and the plaintiffs paid him $1,000 monthly—usually but not always in cash. Mastro moved to introduce two bank slips showing $1,000 deposited to Guerra by the plaintiffs’ office administrator, Ximena Centeno. Donziger counsel Zoe Littlepage spent the better part of an hour vainly fighting to keep them out of evidence.

Sharp and eloquent in private, Littlepage seemed cowed by Kaplan. Her big personality only showed through her blonde ponytail and gogglelike glasses with gold rectangles. Littlepage first argued that she could not verify that the ID number on the bank slips belonged to the former employee in question. An irked Judge Kaplan noted that this was not “Cambodia forty years ago,” and she could easily pick up the phone that evening and ask. Provoked by more equivocation, Kaplan raised his voice and asked abruptly, “Is it her number?!” Littlepage meekly answered yes.

Back to the Honey & Honey, Guerra said that around the fall of 2010 he again met with Donziger, Yanza, and Fajardo, and offered to let them write their own judgment in return for $500,000. Guerra said that Donziger demurred, expressing concern that he might be “swindled.” However, Guerra said that Zambrano later told him that the “attorneys for the plaintiffs” agreed that they would pay the bribe after they collected their money. In his declaration, Guerra said it was Fajardo who confirmed the deal.

To improve the plaintiffs’ ghostwriting, Guerra said he fine-tuned the judgment over the last weekend of January 2011 (the very weekend that Donziger lost his composure during a deposition).

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