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)

Entorno Inteligente | 1-Aug-2017
El Ciadi estableció que el Estado venezolano deberá cancelar 489,9 millones de dólares a las subsidiarias españolas de Gruma, Valores Mundiales y Consorcio Andino como indemnización por expropiaciones en 2010.
American Lawyer | 1-Aug-2017
Litigation funder Burford Capital stands to take home roughly $140 million from a $324 million recovery against the government of Argentina.
Intercontinental Cry | 27-Jul-2017
This past month, eighteen Aymara community leaders endured the final stages of a trial that had them facing up to 28 years in prison and massive fines for their alleged roles in the 2011 ‘Aymarazo’ protests against the Santa Ana silver mine on the Peru-Bolivia border.
Entorno Inteligente | 26-Jul-2017
El fondo inversor Burford Capital Limited , que la semana pasada le ganó un juicio a la Argentina ante el Ciadi por la estatización de Aerolíneas, reconoció que esa decisión no significa necesariamente que el monto de u$s 320 millones será realmente pagado en su totalidad
Reuters | 26-Jul-2017
The World Bank’s arbitration tribunal has ordered Argentina to pay $320 million plus interest and legal fees to Spanish travel group Marsans for expropriating its airline Aerolineas Argentinas SA in 2008.
Montevideo Portal | 25-Jul-2017
Los inversores de la minera Aratirí notificaron al presidente Tabaré Vázquez sobre el inicio de una demanda millonaria contra el Estado uruguayo por "dañar" su inversión, según informa hoy el semanario Búsqueda.
Noticias en Red | 25-Jul-2017
El fallo del Ciadi condenando a Argentina a pagar casi 400 millones de dólares fue obtenido por el estudio de Diego y Alejandro Fargosi.
CETRI | 24-Jul-2017
De plus en plus de voix s’élèvent en Europe contre les accords de libre-échange, y compris au sein des parlements. Ces critiques annoncent-elles une rupture ? Pour mesurer la portée et les limites de ces accords, il vaut la peine de s’intéresser à leurs impacts dans le Sud ainsi qu’aux résistances qu’ils y ont suscitées.
Nasdaq | 24-Jul-2017
Citigroup offered US$200m of Argentina bonds for sale as part of an arbitration agreement to help settle the sovereign’s obligations to French oil company Total.
Página 12 | 20-Jul-2017
El Ministerio de Finanzas entregará a la petrolera francesa Total bonos por 210 millones de dólares para finalizar el juicio que la compañía mantenía contra el país en el tribunal arbitral dependiente del Banco Mundial.