Icsid: Venezuela with the largest amount of ongoing complaints

Venezuela turned out to be the country with the highest number of complaints filed against it at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (Icsid) of the World Bank, after four new complaints lodged in the days prior to its effective pullout of the body.

"To date, Venezuela is mentioned in 24 pending cases and it is the State with more pending cases under the Icsid Convention," Icsid Secretary-General Meg Kinnear e-mailed AFP on Friday.

The government of Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez denounced in January the Icsid Convention; withdrawal was made effective last July 25.

The last complaints filed at the Icsid come from foreign companies that ask for compensation of the nationalization of their assets: Russian-Canadian mining company Rusoro; Argentinean steel maker Ternium; Spanish financial institution Valle Verde and the Blue Bank Internacional & Trust of Barbados.

"In the applications for arbitration involving Venezuela, it was not apparent that these disputes were evidently outside the Icsid jurisdiction by or on July 25, 2012.  Hence, the applications for arbitration were filed," Kinnear elaborated.