RDC's railway arbitration against Guatemala (CAFTA)

Dossier: Infrastructure and logistics06-logistica.md
Domain: Ports, cargo and corridorslogistica
Room: Trade/comercio
Audited: not audited

In March 2007 Railroad Development Corporation (RDC) served notice of intent to arbitrate against Guatemala under Chapter 10 of DR-CAFTA, following the declaration that the Ferrovías railway usufruct was contrary to the public interest (lesividad). Guatemala was held liable in the award (RDC v. Guatemala, ICSID, 2012) and the Attorney General's Office (PGN) later reached a settlement with the Ferrovías/RDC entities. The amount of the award and the terms of the settlement were not verified on this pass; the dossier proposes consulting italaw/ICSID. It is a relevant precedent on declarations of lesividad affecting contracts with foreign investors.

The research is written in English; quoted figures, source names and the titles of legal instruments stay in the language their source published them in.

Figures

Notice of intent to arbitrate (RDC, DR-CAFTA Ch. 10)Wikipedia / OMAL: March 20072007
RDC v. Guatemala award (ICSID)Wikipedia / OMAL: Guatemala found liable; amount not verified2012

Caveat

award amount and terms of the PGN–Ferrovías settlement not verified; OMAL has an editorial bias

Sources

Wikipedia — Ferrocarril en Guatemala (b)es.wikipedia.orgconsulted Aug 19, 2026
OMAL — El ferrocarril en Guatemala, una historia de despojo (b, con sesgo editorial)omal.infoconsulted Aug 19, 2026

Related records

This layer is research: read from public sources by the archive's own team, every claim cited with the date it was consulted, and audited where it is marked so. It has not entered the verified store — no figure here was fetched back from its source or stamped with a retrieval time — so it wears no red provenance numeral and never mixes with the verified figures.