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Ailing Ecuador Leader Still Calls Shots 

A painting of Jesus looks down on former President Leon Febres Cordero's king-sized bed. On the floor are eight pairs of cowboy boots and a pile of saddles. Hanging on the wall are two repeating shotguns and two submachine guns.

Febres Cordero has survived five bypass heart operations, two bouts with cancer, three bullet wounds and a chain-smoking habit. At 75 he might be expected to take to a rocking chair. But the political power broker known as "the owner" of Ecuador has no intention of fading away. . . . .

"My best friends are my cigarettes and my pistols. They don't ask for anything and they're always ready," he said with a big grin

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NGOs Call on Governments to Ratify Global Tobacco Treaty on World No Tobacco Day 

Today, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are joining health advocates, students and the city of Quito to celebrate World No Tobacco Day in Ecuador's capital. The coalition began a three-week tour of Latin America last week to urge the governments of Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica to ratify the global tobacco treaty. Corporate Accountability International is working closely with the Zero Tobacco Network (Brazil), Tribuna Ecuatoriana de Consumidores y Usarios (Ecuador), ALERTA (Costa Rica) and other members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) to coordinate the Latin America Treaty Ratification Campaign.

At each stop on the tour, public health, consumer and corporate accountability advocates from around the Americas are calling on key government officials to support the world's first public health treaty

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International NGOs Call on Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica to Ratify Global Tobacco Treaty 

Today, an international coalition of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) is launching a campaign to call on the governments of Brazil, Ecuador and Costa Rica to ratify the global tobacco treaty. Corporate Accountability International is working closely with the Zero Tobacco Network (Brazil), Tribuna Ecuatoriana de Consumidores y Usarios (Ecuador), ALERTA (Costa Rica) and other members of the Network for Accountability of Tobacco Transnationals (NATT) to coordinate a Latin American Ratification Campaign Tour from 24 May through 4 June.

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Anti-smoking treaty tops 100 signatures 

Earlier this week Ecuador become the 100th country to sign the World Health Organization's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. The following day Congo lifted the number to 101.

"With their signatures, 100 governments which represent 4.5 billion people have underscored their intention to become a party to the convention and thus protect their populations from tobacco-related diseases," said WHO Director-General Dr Lee Jong-wook. "I commend these countries, urge the remaining ones to sign and encourage all signatories who have not yet ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control to do so."

The treaty comes into forces when 40 countries have ratified the deal. At the moment only nine have done so but as India is one of them, they represent one billion people...

The important name missing from for the treaty is that of the United States of America.

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• Big Tobacco Beats Back RICO Claims 

Lawyers for five U.S. tobacco companies have persuaded the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to adopt a 225-year-old common law principle that bars three Latin American countries from suing them in U.S. courts.

That principle, called the revenue rule, prohibits one country from trying to enforce its own revenue laws in another country's courts.

In the defense's brief, Goodwin Proctor's Kenneth J. Parsigian, who represented the tobacco companies, cited cases from 225 years of Anglo-American jurisprudence

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• Tobacco Companies Win Smuggling Appeal 

Tobacco manufacturers have won an appeal challenging lawsuits by the governments of Belize, Ecuador and Honduras that claim the companies conspired to smuggle cigarettes into their countries to boost profits and evade taxes.

The racketeering suits against Philip Morris, R.J. Reynolds, Brown & Williamson, Lorillard and Liggett boil down to attempts to enforce foreign tax claims in U.S. courts, the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decided, upholding an earlier ruling by a Miami federal judge throwing out the lawsuit.

The court ruled that the strategy violates 18th century English common law and cannot be pursued. The ruling Friday did not address whether the companies smuggled cigarettes.

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Rendez-vous with . . . Angela Pinoargote, about tobacco control in Ecuador 

I work mostly with kids in schools in the Province of Manabi. We have just started a new campaign on the theme "Instead of smoking, feel yourself at life". . . A tobacco control Act was passed by Congress in 1998 but there is no enforcement. The government is too concerned about collecting tobacco taxes to enforce the law and about 6,000 people work for the tobacco companies. . . There is one national corporation but Philip Morris holds 80% of the market: they bought out local companies. They are also involved in growing tobacco and this development is detrimental because farmers will grow tobacco instead of food crops.

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• Latin American Nations Claim Tobacco Cos. Violated RICO 

A centuries-old common-law rule may bar three Latin American nations from suing American tobacco companies under RICO in U.S. courts.

According to Kenneth J. Parsigian, who argued for the tobacco companies Tuesday before a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nations of Belize, Ecuador and Honduras don't have the right to sue his clients.

"No court anywhere in history, anywhere in the world, has ever allowed a claim like this to go forward," said Parsigian, of Boston's Goodwin Proctor.

The three countries have accused five tobacco companies, including R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., Phillip Morris Cos. Inc. and Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., of setting up "elaborate criminal schemes to move their tobacco products into the hands of smokers, well below the radar screen of [the countries'] regulatory infrastructure." According to the plaintiffs, the companies sold tobacco in the Latin American nations tax-free by moving it through shadow companies and smugglers.

They filed a complaint in a Florida state court, alleging money laundering and mail and wire fraud, among other things. . .

Perwin said his clients' right to recourse in the U.S. courts is established under the plain language of RICO.

"[The revenue rule] is obviously superseded by the plain meaning of the federal statute," he said. "The plain meaning of the statute covers our claim. No doubt about it."

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No court anywhere in history, anywhere in the world, has ever allowed a claim like this to go forward.
Kenneth J. Parsigian, who argued for the tobacco companies before a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals against the suit by Belize, Ecuador and Honduras.

[The revenue rule] is obviously superseded by the plain meaning of the [RICO] federal statute. . . No doubt about it.
Joel S. Perwin, lawyer for the Latin American nations.

Latin American Nations Claim Tobacco Cos. Violated RICO 

A centuries-old common-law rule may bar three Latin American nations from suing American tobacco companies under RICO in U.S. courts.

According to Kenneth J. Parsigian, who argued for the tobacco companies Tuesday before a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the nations of Belize, Ecuador and Honduras don't have the right to sue his clients.

"No court anywhere in history, anywhere in the world, has ever allowed a claim like this to go forward," said Parsigian, of Boston's Goodwin Proctor.

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EDITORIAL: Second-hand tobacco suits 

Guatemala, Nicaragua and Ecuador, the three Latin American countries involved thus far, may well have been conned by slick American trial lawyers looking to line their own pockets at the expense of gullible clients.

The U.S. lawyers reportedly have assured the foreign governments they have courted that the U.S. tobacco companies would settle out-of-court at the first hint of a lawsuit. Lawyers for tobacco companies, however, have been adamant that their settlement with the 46 states here should not be taken in any way as a sneak preview of their reaction to lawsuits by foreign governments.

All three of the nations that sued and lost are heavily involved in the cigarette trade within their own borders. . .

Whatever short-term benefits the three Latin American countries might have obtained from successful lawsuits likely would have been offset by the loss of desperately needed foreign investment. U.S. companies, not to mention their European and Japanese counterparts, are seeking to invest in countries that have stable and predictable business climates. The feeling is that if a nation is willing to sue one U.S. industry on such flimsy grounds it obviously is willing to sue others as well. With a new administration that has a decidedly more pro-business attitude than its predecessor, such lawsuits could trigger economic repercussions in foreign aid and trade relations as well.

The governments of Panama and Venezuela still have lawsuits pending against American tobacco companies in U.S. courts. They should ponder the fate of Nicaragua, Guatemala and Ecuador and the long-term economic repercussions as well before they proceed with such ill-advised legal actions.

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Legal Reform Group Applauds Dismissal of Foreign Lawsuit in U.S. Court 

Last week in Miami, a circuit court judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Republic of Ecuador against several multi-national tobacco companies. Ecuador was seeking billions in damages for costs it allegedly incurred treating smokers.

The American Tort Reform Association (ATRA) has steadfastly opposed this type of litigation, especially when filed inappropriately in U.S. courts.

``There would be no limit to these suits if our courts allowed them to proceed,'' said Sherman Joyce, President of ATRA. ``Imagine if every foreign government could use U.S. courts to revisit the effects of local policy decisions.''

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Florida Judge Directs Dismissal of Ecuador Suit; Ruling Extends Dismissal Streak 

"These claims have been rejected decisively and uniformly by every appellate court to consider them. Simply alleging injuries to its citizenry does not entitle a foreign government to target an American industry and try to exploit the U.S. court system," said Ohlemeyer.

"The result in the Ecuador case, together with the decisions in the Guatemala and other cases, should help close the door on tobacco cases filed by foreign governments in the United States," Ohlemeyer added.

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• Florida judge refuses Ecuador's suit against cigarette-makers 

A lawsuit filed by the Republic of Ecuador that attempts to recover the cost of treating sick smokers from U.S. tobacco companies will be dismissed next week, Judge Paul Siegel of Miami-Dade Circuit Court has ruled.

"Dade County is probably the very best place in the entire world perhaps for a smoker to sue a tobacco company, but Florida may be the worst place in the U.S. for a foreign government to sue the tobacco companies," Siegel said in court Monday.

The judge said that foreign-government suits don't belong in this jurisdiction because they are too remote.

The dismissal of Ecuador's lawsuit is significant because it could portend a similar fate for 10 other lawsuits filed here against the tobacco industry by foreign governments.

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Dade County is probably the very best place in the entire world perhaps for a smoker to sue a tobacco company, but Florida may be the worst place in the U.S. for a foreign government to sue the tobacco companies.
Judge Paul Siegel of Miami-Dade Circuit Court, who will dismiss Ecuador's suit next week. KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE, <I>Florida judge refuses Ecuador's suit against cigarette-makers</I>

• Ecuador's Tobacco Lawsuit to Be Refiled, Lawyer Says (Update1) 

A representative of Ecuador said the country will refile a lawsuit against Philip Morris Cos. and other U.S. tobacco companies in an effort to recover health care costs.

In state court in Miami, Ecuador dropped its suit Monday after Judge Paul Seigel said he would dismiss the claims, said attorney Steven Marks.

``I think we were clearly right on the merits,'' Marks said. ``Another judge will hopefully agree with out position.''

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Florida Judge Directs Dismissal of Ecuador Suit 

``This decision should be a clear signal to the attorneys pursuing these lawsuits that state courts will be as hostile to these claims as the federal courts,'' said William S. Ohlemeyer, Philip Morris vice president and associate general counsel. ``Federal courts in this country have uniformly rejected such lawsuits. Because similar rules apply regardless of where these cases are filed or who files them, these cases should be dismissed whether they are filed in state or federal court.'' . .

``These claims have been rejected decisively and uniformly by every appellate court to consider them. Simply alleging injuries to its citizenry does not entitle a foreign government to target an American industry and try to exploit the U.S. court system,'' said Ohlemeyer.

``The result in the Ecuador case, together with the decisions in the Guatemala and other cases, should help close the door on tobacco cases filed by foreign governments in the United States,'' Ohlemeyer added.

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