Latin America

Latin American and Caribbean countries have signed almost 700 investment agreements. They have been targeted in almost 300 investor-state disputes.

Argentina has faced almost 62 ISDS cases, about 6% of all cases, making it the world’s most targeted state. Venezuela and Mexico have been among the ten most frequent respondents in the world, with 51 and 33 cases, respectively.

Many key cases such as Renco vs. Peru, Chevron vs. Ecuador or Pac Rim vs. El Salvador have originated in significant environmental damages caused by corporations. Philip Morris took an ISDS case against Uruguay over its anti-tobacco law.

Chile, Mexico and Peru are also party to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) with eight other Pacific Rim states. The TPP includes an investor-state dispute mechanism that undermines public-interest ‘safeguards’.

The most well-known cases ISDS cases in the region include:

Chevron (US) vs. Ecuador: For 26 years, Texaco, later acquired by Chevron, performed oil operations in Ecuador. Ecuadorian courts found that during that period the company dumped billions of gallons of toxic water and dug hundreds of open-air oil sludge pits in Ecuador’s Amazon, poisoning the communities of some 30,000 Amazon residents. After a legal battle spanning two decades, in November 2013, Ecuador’s highest court ordered the corporation to pay $9.5 billion to provide desperately needed clean-up and health care to afflicted indigenous communities. Chevron challenged the decisions produced by Ecuador’s domestic legal system before an ISDS tribunal. In 2018, the arbitration tribunal held that the $9.5 billion judgment was fraudulent, violated international public policy and should not be recognised or enforced by the courts of other States. The amount of the award has not been established yet. (Ecuador-United States BIT invoked)

Occidental Petroleum Corporation “Oxy” (US) vs. Ecuador: in 2012 Ecuador was ordered to pay US$1.77 billion to the investor, an oil exploration and production company, for breach of contract. Sentence was reduced to US$1 billion in November 2015 (Ecuador-United States BIT invoked).

Investors vs. Argentina: When Argentina froze its utility rates in response to its 2001-2002 financial crisis, it was hit by over 40 lawsuits from investors, including Suez & Vivendi (France), Sociedad General de Aguas de Barcelona S.A (Spain) and Anglian Water (UK). The ISDS tribunal concluded that Argentina had breached the investors’ right to fair and equitable treatment. By 2014, the country had been ordered to pay a total of US$980 million (various BITs invoked).

Photo: Sairen42 / CC BY-SA 3.0

(April 2020)

The Financial | 4-Dec-2017
Under the terms of the agreement, ConocoPhillips will recover a total of $337 million from Ecuador.
Mining Weekly | 4-Dec-2017
The arbitrators agreed with the company that Peru had breached its obligations to the company under the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement when it expropriated the company’s Santa Ana silver project, in 2011.
Descifrado | 1-Dec-2017
Con un costo de 1.1 mil millones de dólares la planta de Fertinitro es una de las plantas de fertilizantes a base de nitrógeno más grandes del mundo, con una capacidad de producción diaria de 3.600 toneladas métricas de amoníaco y 4.400 toneladas métricas de urea.
Latin America Herald Tribune | 30-Nov-2017
The Koch Brothers have filed suit in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C., to collect a $409 million ICSID award against Venezuela.
Fietta | 28-Nov-2017
In a series of recent awards, ICSID tribunals have adopted contrasting (and apparently irreconcilable) approaches to Venezuela’s denunciation of the ICSID Convention.
Correo del Orinoco | 28-Nov-2017
Venezuela obtuvo fallos favorables en tribunales internacionales entre octubre y noviembre que permitieron preservar más de 2.000 millones de dólares en ataques contra el patrimonio nacional.
BNN | 28-Nov-2017
Crystallex International Corp. and Venezuela agreed to settle a US$1.2 billion dispute over the 2011 nationalization of a gold deposit in the South American nation.
Ámbito | 20-Nov-2017
El Gobierno pidió al tribunal de resolución de controversias del Banco Mundial (CIADI) la anulación de la condena por la cual Argentina deberá pagar u$s 320,7 millones por expropiar Aerolíneas en el 2008.
WRadio | 17-Nov-2017
La demanda que la empresa de telecomunicaciones estadounidense Italba Corporation interpuso contra Uruguay por revocarle una licencia carece de méritos jurisdiccionales y de fondo, alegó el gobierno del país suramericano en una audiencia ante el organismo internacional que aborda este asunto.
CNCD 11.11.11 | 17-Nov-2017
Au-delà du CETA, signé en octobre 2017 par l’Union européenne et le Canada et très médiatisé, l’Europe négocie une kyrielle de traités commerciaux à travers toute la planète.