My name is Steven Donziger, and I’m a human rights lawyer who was unjustly imprisoned in the United States for nearly three years. My “crime”? Standing with Amazonian communities to hold Chevron accountable for causing one of the worst environmental disasters in history.

For three decades, Chevron deliberately dumped billions of gallons of toxic, cancer-causing oil waste into the rivers and streams of Ecuador’s Amazon Rainforest.

This reckless act of environmental destruction caused a humanitarian catastrophe, leading to the deaths of thousands of Indigenous people and local farmers. To this day, these communities remain at risk, living with the deadly consequences of Chevron’s toxic legacy.

After years of legal battles, we achieved a historic victory: Chevron was ordered to pay $10 billion in damages – the largest amount ever awarded in an environmental case.

But Chevron has refused to pay even a single dollar.

Instead, they launched an aggressive legal assault on me personally. Chevron hired 60 law firms and hundreds of lawyers to try and crush me, suing me for an unimaginable $60 billion – more liability than any corporation or bank had ever faced.

In a shocking turn of events, I was prosecuted on a baseless contempt of court charge orchestrated by Chevron, leading to over two years of detention without a fair trial.

This charge revealed the deeply troubling bias of a U.S. judge with financial ties to Chevron – a fact condemned by five leading jurists from the United Nations, who called the case against me “staggering” and “appalling.”

Chevron didn’t stop there. They fought to revoke my passport, effectively barring me from visiting my clients in the Amazon or appearing in courts worldwide to demand justice for the communities they poisoned.

Their objective is clear: Chevron doesn’t just want to silence me – they want to send a message to anyone who dares to challenge the oil industry.

But I refuse to back down.

I’ve launched a petition, supported by ten prominent attorneys, calling on U.S. President Joe Biden to grant me a pardon for this baseless conviction.

A pardon isn’t just about clearing my name – it’s about continuing the fight for justice. It’s the only way to ensure that the Indigenous communities of Ecuador have a real chance at holding Chevron accountable for the devastation they caused.

And that’s where I need your help.

This crowdfunding campaign will enable us to launch a major, global movement to pressure the Biden administration to act. We need the resources to raise awareness and mobilize millions of people to demand this pardon.

President Biden won’t act unless we make our voices impossible to ignore.

This isn’t just my fight – it’s a fight for justice, for the environment, for Indigenous rights, and against the unchecked power of corporations. It’s about all of us and the future of our planet.

Please contribute to this campaign and share it with your networks. Together, we can prove that people power is stronger than Chevron’s billions.