Introduction

In April 2007, the member states of the Alternativa Bolivariana para la América Latina y El Caribe (ALBA), namely Bolivia, Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, proclaimed their intention to withdraw from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. Bolivia was the first - and so far only - state to implement this resolution, and submitted a notice of denunciation of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between states and nationals of other states (the ICSID Convention) on May 2, 2007 (see ICSID News Release of May 16, 2007, "Bolivia Submits a ...