Measures of bad faith in Latin America: Governments and Multinational Extractive Companies 1982-2020

Abstract

This paper analyzed a possible ’Ethics of freedom’ in the relations between extractive companies and Latin American states. The research supports an original theory on the origin of global injustices that focuses on developing countries as ethically responsible ontological units. The empirical case studies of the relations between Multinational Companies and the Latin American States are taken from a qualitative methodology that analyzes fifteen instances of injustice judged by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights between 1980 and 2020. Does the article ask: How have ethic concepts such as bad faith, L’angoisse de la libert´e, selfawareness, Being-in-itself, and Being-for-itself been applied in relations between Latin American companies and governments? The authors take, hypothetically, States, companies, and international organizations as ontological units of a "global society." While other research tends to focus on the responsibilities of extractive companies, this article concludes that distortions in the Ethics of States, such as the bad faith of governments in developing countries, largely explain situations of injustice. Accordingly, the article concludes that it is possible to argue new criminalities of bad faith given that Latin American Governments are morally responsible for crimes prior to and during the establishment of extractive companies between 1982 and 2020.