Venezuela Leaves the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID)

Venezuela’s exit from the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID came into effect today, after the country made its withdrawal official before the World Bank last January 25th.

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Caracas, 25 Jul. AVN.- Venezuela’s exit from the International Center for Settlement of Investment Disputes, or ICSID came into effect today, after the country made its withdrawal official before the World Bank last January 25th.

The six-month period required to carry out the withdrawal is stipulated in article 71 of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (the ICSID Convention), endorsed on behalf of Venezuela by the provisional government of Ramon J. Velasquez in 1993.

Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry said early this year that the ICSID Convention was signed by a government which “lacked popular legitimacy” and under the pressure of “transnational economic sectors which helped to dismantle Venezuela’s national sovereignty”.

According to article 72 of the ICSID Convention, Venezuela’s exit does not imply that it won’t  comply with previous rulings imposed on the country, and which add up to five billion dollars.

The latest lawsuit filed by a transnational company against Venezuela was submitted on June 18th. It was filed by Europe’s Saint-Gobain Performance Plastics, whose subsidiary Norpro was nationalized in Venezuela in 2010.

ICSID’s bias towards international capital has been confirmed not only in 22 lawsuits filed against the Venezuelan State, but also since its creation, “it has ruled 232 times in favor of transnational interests, out of 234 lawsuits received throughout its history,” stated released by Venezuela’s Foreign Ministry in January, 2012.

Edited by Venezuelanalysis.com