If Sheinbaum decides to finally take a stand, she would have important allies.
On March 25, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced that his country, in the face of similar challenges to its sovereignty, will withdraw from the international arbitration system.
The Colombian leader’s historic decision comes after years of civil society advocacy. In 2023, more than 300 organizations called on the Colombian government to lead in the dismantling of a system that empowers transnational corporations, particularly in extractives industries, to destroy lives, ecosystems, and communities in which they operate.
A few weeks ago, 220 economic and legal experts, including renowned economists Joseph Stiglitz, Ha-Joon Chang, and Thomas Piketty, sent Petro a letter urging him to take this action. The letter also calls on him to use the upcoming First International Conference on Transitioning Away from Fossil Fuels in Colombia to galvanize coordinated international action to reject the investor-state system.
Enrique Daza, a founder of the Colombian Network Against Free Trade, had also recently sharply criticized the Colombian government for conducting officials reviews of its trade agreements with the United States and the European Union but without these reviews leading to a clear break with the arbitration system. Daza, a tireless fighter for Colombian sovereignty and fair trade in the hemisphere, died just days before Petro’s March 28 announcement.
Brazil would also be a strong partner. Latin America’s largest economy has never signed a trade agreement or investment treaty that gives private foreign investors recourse to supranational arbitration bodies. Sheinbaum’s just-announced meetingwith Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva this summer offers an opportunity to move forward.
Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia account for between 65 percent and 70 percent of the total GDP of Latin America and the Caribbean. This represents a far more powerful potential economic bloc than the rightwing governments from the region that have allied with President Donald Trump in his new so-called “Shield of the Americas.” These conservative-led nations account for not more than a quarter of the region’s combined GDP.
In terms of population, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico are home to about 400 million inhabitants (60 percent of the region), while the “Shield” countries have just 160 million (24 percent).
No country can take on a system that benefits powerful transnational corporate interests alone. But together these three powerful nations could strike a strong blow to these anti-democratic rules and begin building an alternative that respects the rights of national governments to act in the interest of their own people and the environment.
This piece was originally published in La Jornada.
