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)

Reuters | 25-Feb-2016
Venezuela llegó a un acuerdo para buscar una solución a un prolongado conflicto por arbitraje con la minera canadiense Gold Reserve, que reclama una indemnización de 750 millones de dólares tras el abrupto fin de una concesión que mantuvo en el país sudamericano hasta 2009.
Reuters | 25-Feb-2016
Venezuela and Canadian mining company Gold Reserve signed a memorandum of understanding to settle a protracted arbitration dispute over a gold concession.
IISD | 15-Feb-2016
Bolivia’s experience has shown that attracting foreign investment does not by itself generate the expected development for host states and that, rather, it consists in a mechanism for financing and transferring resources from the South to the North.
The Clinic | 12-Feb-2016
El domingo pasado el canciller, Heraldo Muñoz, tras firmar el Acuerdo de Asociación Transpacífico, que debe ser ratificado por el Parlamento, argumentó que las críticas se debían a desinformación. La organización civil, Chile mejor sin TPP, responde al secretario de Estado y refuta sus afirmaciones sobre los beneficios que traerá para el país el cuestionado acuerdo comercial.
Diario UNO | 12-Feb-2016
Fondos de inversión como Gramercy Funds Management, presionan al Perú para cobrar bonos agrarios en soles de los años 60, por más de mil millones de dólares.
El Dínamo | 12-Feb-2016
Chile lo firmó en Nueva Zelanda la semana pasada. Con ello la polémica se abre y amenaza ser una bola de fuego. Para unos es la ignominia, para otros, la salvación, como lo ha dicho la Cancillería chilena. 
SteelOrbis | 12-Feb-2016
Luxembourg-based pipe producer Tenaris announced it won a $172.8 million compensation for the expropriation by Venezuela of Tenaris’ and its subsidiary Talta’s interests.
América Economía | 8-Feb-2016
El CIADI publicó un fallo en su página web ratificando una decisión emitida a mediados de 2012, que había sido apelada por Argentina.
América Economía | 8-Feb-2016
The ICSID, the World Bank’s international arbitration tribunal, ordered Argentina to pay 136.1 million dollars plus interest to the companies, EDF International, Saur International and León Participaciones Argentinas for breach of contract.