Gruma Expropriation Case: Recognition in the United States for Payment

The District Court of Washington D.C. granted recognition in the United States to Valores Mundiales and Consorcio Andino, majority shareholders of the food company Gruma, for a compensation payment of over $600 million due to the expropriation of their assets in the country in 2010, during the government of Hugo Chávez.

Judge Ana Reyes accepted the request of the Spanish companies for the enforcement in the United States of the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) ruling issued in November 2017, which was confirmed in December 2021 after a failed annulment request by Venezuela.

The companies submitted their request to the U.S. court in January 2019, but it was on hold while the annulment request at the ICSID was being resolved.

The compensation amount is $430.4 million, plus compounded interest, arbitration costs at the ICSID, and the appeal process at the ICSID, bringing the total to $618.6 million.

In August 2022, a judge had recommended this decision, and the defense by the interim government of Juan Guaidó, representing Venezuela, appealed the opinion, arguing that they were not allowed to defend themselves at the ICSID because that instance recognized representatives of the government of Nicolás Maduro. The court rejected that position.

This recognition obtained by Gruma would allow them to request the enforcement of the compensation, as other affected companies such as Crystallex, Conoco, or Rusoro are doing, aiming to collect through the Citgo embargo.

Gruma in Venezuela

Gruma is a multinational company based in Mexico that manufactured and distributed food products (mainly corn and wheat flour) in Venezuela since 1993, under the brands Maseca and Monaca. In 2010, following a criminal case against one of its minority shareholders, Ricardo Fernández Barrueco, the companies were intervened and eventually expropriated.

In 2013, the Spanish companies Valores Mundiales and Consorcio Andino, as majority shareholders, filed a complaint against Venezuela at the ICSID after negotiations for a payment agreement failed.

This case is one of the many that Venezuela faces in U.S. courts, totaling claims of over $40 billion, according to 2022 data.