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)

Radio Mundo Real | 30-Jun-2017
Aún existen procesos penales pendientes a dirigentes sociales y una demanda millonaria en el CIADI.
Radio Mundo Real | 28-Jun-2017
Criminal charges pending against 18 community leaders and a billion-dollar court case at ICSID.
IISD | 28-Jun-2017
Le Brésil n’a jamais approuvé un traité bilatéral d’investissement, ni signé la Convention du CIRDI. Malgré cela le pays a continué de recevoir d’importants flux d’investissement étranger direct.
IISD | 28-Jun-2017
Brazil has never approved any BITs nor did it sign the ICSID Convention but it continued to receive significant amounts of foreign direct investment (FDI), consolidating its position as one of the world’s top recipients of FDI
Eleve | 23-Jun-2017
El Estado argentino enfrenta su primer juicio en el exterior por la nacionalización de las AFJP.
Newburgh Gazette | 23-Jun-2017
Chevron is victorious after the Supreme Court declined to hear a case made against the company by a NY lawyer representing Ecuadorian villagers.
National Law Review | 23-Jun-2017
Venezuela is taking its fight over a $1.4 billion arbitral award to the District of Columbia’s federal court of appeals.
Entorno Inteligente | 19-Jun-2017
La empresa minera canadiense Gold Reserve dijo que Venezuela le pagó $40 millones de dólares y que, en los próximos dos años, cancelará el resto de su deuda de aproximadamente que suman 1.032 millones de dólares.
Latin America Herald Tribune | 19-Jun-2017
Gold Reserve Inc. reports that it has received a $40 million payment on its $800 million judgment that it won at the World Bank’s International Center for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in 2014.
Electricidad | 16-Jun-2017
La hidroeléctrica intentó cobrar garantías por US$ 76 millones, pero fue bloqueada por tribunal. Asunto se resolverá bajo el ICC.