Dyncorp
Case Name: Venancio Aguasanta Arias vs. DYNCORP, DYNCORP AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY, DYNCORP TECHNICAL SERVICES, LLC, and DYNCORP INTERNATIONAL, LLC
Plaintiff: Ecuadorian farmers seeking damages for DynCorp’s spraying of fumigants along Ecuador’s border with Colombia
Summary: In the controversial “Plan Colombia,” the US government contracted with DynCorp to spray fumigants on coca plants in Colombia in an effort to eradicate a major source of cocaine. In the course of this program, DynCorp has also been spraying farmers on the Ecuadorian side of the border. A group of at least 10,000 Ecuadorian subsistence farmers with no connection to the drug trade are being subjected to sustained, deadly aerial assaults financed by the US government through DynCorp. Filed in September 2001, ILRF has brought forward claims by the farmers of crimes against humanity and wrongful death. In May 2007, the U.S. District Court DC denied Dyncorp’s motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed to discovery.
Status: In May 2007, the U.S. District Court DC denied Dyncorp’s motion to dismiss, allowing the case to proceed to discovery.
Cooperating Attorney:
Christobal Bonifaz
— Chris Saeger, "Strengthening Rule of Law Through Aid for Human Rights Litigation in National Courts: A Case Study of Oil Multinational Corporations Complicit in Human Rights Violations in Sudan and Nigeria (December 2007)
— Terry Collingsworth, "Using the Alien Tort Claims Act to Introduce the Rule of Law to the Global Economy (2005)
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