Bechtel suing Bolivia for "lost profits" in water hike scheme.

Fwd from the Democracy Center.

Let Bechtel know that people around the world are watching them, and that
they won't fool us with PR lies!

If the automatic link to Riley Bechtel and other e-mail contacts doesn't
work now after forwarding this message, you can reply to/forward this entir=
e
message, copy the e-mails into the "To" field, and delete any extraneous
text.

PLEASE DON'T SEND BACK TO LISTS ;-)

Peace,
Jill

---------------------

Here, as an issue of our Democracy Center e-mail newsletter, is our formal
response to Bechtel. You might be especially interested in the material we
have just posted on our Web site, documenting the falsehoods Bechtel sent t=
o
you and others who wrote to them (see the Web link below). As discussed
below, I hope you will be willing to write to Bechtel once again.

Best wishes

Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center

**********************************************

THE DEMOCRACY CENTER ON-LINE

"BECHTEL FALSIFIES THE FACTS ON ITS BOLIVIA DISASTER"

Volume 42 - January 17, 2002

Dear Readers,

Here is the question. Can one of the world's most powerful corporations
come to one of the world's poorest countries, do unconscionable damage, lie
about it, and then get away with lying? The answer may well depend on
whether you are willing to take about half a minute of your time to help.

As you know, in December I sent an e-mail to Riley Bechtel, CEO and
chairman of Bechtel Enterprises, calling on him to drop his company's $25
million legal action against the people of Bolivia. More than 100 other
Democracy Center readers also sent e-mails to Bechtel. This forced an
official response from the company's public relations department, in which
the company outright lied about the enormous price hikes it imposed on
people here. Not only that, Bechtel tried to peddle the same false
information to my editors at Pacific News Service in an effort to block
publication of an article I wrote on events here. Despite Bechtel's
efforts, that article was syndicated nationwide and ran on January 14 in th=
e
Sacramento Bee.

SEE THE PROOF OF BECHTEL'S WILLINGNESS TO FALSIFY THE FACTS

Not only do we know Bechtel is lying, we can prove it and we have now
posted that evidence on our web site available for all who wish to view it:

http://www.democracyctr.org/bechtel/index.htm

There you will find actual before-and-after copies of people's water bills,
documenting Bechtel's increases. You will also find a full computer
analysis of Bechtel's price hikes conducted by the current water company, a=
s
well as my letter to Bechtel, Bechtel's response and a host of other
documents. Believe me, this is about 10 times more detail than anyone woul=
d
ever want to know about water rates in Bolivia - but in the detail lies the
proof that Bechtel is willing to lie to both press and public in order to
avoid responsibility for what they did here.

TAKE ACTION NOW

Here's what you can do and it will take you about 30 seconds to do it (I
timed it):

1) Highlight and copy the text below:

Dear Mr. Bechtel,

I am writing to express my strong objections to your company's legal
actions against the Bolivian people. The Democracy Center has now
documented for all to see how your company has falsified information about
the water price hikes it imposed on poor families. If you and your company
have any integrity in this matter you will drop your $25 million demand
against Bolivia and instead issue an apology to the Bolivian people for the
damage you have caused and the public for the misinformation you have
spread.

Sincerely,

2) Click on the address link below:

This will automatically open a message to Mr. Bechtel's personal e-mail, to
his public relations department and will also send a copy to The Democracy
Center. Paste the text above into your message, adding a subject line, you=
r
name and any other comments you'd like to make.

mailto:rbechtel [at] bechtel.com,news [at] bechtel.com,info [at] democracyctr.org


As the Enron debacle reminds us how willing some corporate leaders are to
falsify facts in order to fatten their profits, here is a chance for us to
hold one corporate leader directly and personally accountable, before the
damage is done. Please do this now and please share this note with others
who might be willing to do the same. Below is the full text of my own
letter to Mr. Bechtel, being delivered to him by e-mail today as well.

Thank you,

Jim Shultz
The Democracy Center