Artificial Intelligence: Organizations Across the Americas Urge the IACHR to Address the Environmental and Social Impacts of Rapidly Expanding Data Centers

Original article: Inteligencia Artificial: Organizaciones de toda América alertan ante la CIDH sobre los impactos de la expansión acelerada y desregulada de los centros de datos

During a hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) in Washington, organizations from Chile, Mexico, and the United States warned that the rapid growth of data centers is shifting the environmental and social costs of artificial intelligence and the digital economy to Latin America.

Representing the Latin American Observatory of Environmental Conflicts (OLCA) and Civic Action from Chile, Lucio Cuenca stated that Chile occupies «a strategic position in this new geography of accumulation,» being a supplier of copper, lithium, and rare earths for the energy and technological transition, while also «consolidating» as a platform for large data centers.

«The energy and digital transition driven by the Global North is transferring its environmental and social costs to Latin America. Chile is incorporated as a supplier of minerals and a platform for data centers through deregulation, conflicts of interest, and restrictions on citizen participation,» emphasized the OLCA director.

In this sense, the presentation linked two processes that are often addressed separately: the rare earth project of Aclara Resources in Penco, Biobío Region, and the National Data Centers Plan.

In Penco, communities have resisted for over a decade an initiative that has accumulated five failed environmental assessments due to its impacts on streams, native forests, and endangered species, as well as risks associated with toxic and radioactive byproducts.

Despite this, the new environmental authorities unanimously approved the country’s first rare earth project.

In terms of technological infrastructure, Chile reached 37 operational data centers in 2025. OLCA criticized the «red carpet» regulatory approach that guides companies on land use, energy, and connectivity while opening the possibility of establishing these infrastructures without mandatory environmental assessments.

«By excluding projects from the Environmental Impact Assessment System, access to information and community participation is also restricted,» recalled the Observatory.

Conflict of Interest

During his presentation, Lucio Cuenca pointed to the case of Aisén Etcheverry, former Minister of Science who led the National Data Centers Plan and previously served as Public Policy Manager for South America at Amazon Web Services.

«In 2023, the Comptroller’s Office determined that she should have abstained from joining the commission evaluating proposals to establish the Data Observatory Foundation, since AWS was one of the participants. For OLCA, this case underscores the risks of the revolving door and the lack of accountability in decisions regarding digital infrastructure,» Cuenca noted.

In this context, he indicated that «the evidence gathered by the organizations shows a common pattern regarding contracts for land, water, and energy protected by confidentiality clauses; fiscal incentives negotiated without public scrutiny; weakening of environmental assessments; and concentration of impacts on indigenous and Afro-descendant communities, as well as sectors already facing contamination, water scarcity, and climate crisis.»

Presentation of Evidence

For Diana Baptista, a researcher with the Latin American Data Centers Observatory in Mexico, the hearing provided a platform to present evidence on «the modus operandi by which large tech companies and local governments evade environmental legislation to prioritize data centers over the human rights of communities.»

Teresa Roldán, an environmental advocate from Vocer@s de la Madre Tierra, also from Mexico, asserted that companies and authorities are «acting together to strip territories of water, energy, food security, and health,» while corporate ambition overrides community protection.

From the United States, Matthew French, a lawyer with ClientEarth, reminded attendees that data centers consume enormous amounts of water, electricity, and land: «Governments must ensure that technological development respects human rights, rather than allowing corporations to shift their costs to communities and ecosystems,» he stated.

From MediaJustice, Jacinta González warned that the rise of artificial intelligence relies on «fundamentally undemocratic» processes, where communities are ignored and even detained when they oppose projects.

She also called for the establishment of an international movement to confront the power of large tech firms.

Finally, the organizations requested that the IACHR assign the Special Rapporteur on Economic, Social, Cultural, and Environmental Rights to monitor this phenomenon regionally and incorporate it into its next strategic plan.

They also called for a thematic report on digital infrastructure and human rights that includes environmental justice, gender issues, Indigenous peoples, and the protection of defenders.

«The aim is to establish standards that require transparency in contracts and the consumption of common goods, strengthen due diligence and corporate accountability, ensure comprehensive environmental assessments, and guarantee prior and effective community participation,» the organizations stated.

Additionally, they proposed establishing strict legal safeguards and temporary moratoriums to suspend new projects in the face of serious risks or insufficient information until protective guarantees are in place.

A «Historic Opportunity»

Sebastian Smart, a researcher at the Centre for Access to Justice and Inclusion in the United Kingdom, described the hearing as a «historic opportunity» for the IACHR to develop inter-American standards on transparency, impact assessment, citizen participation, and the effective protection of human rights against artificial intelligence infrastructure.

The members of the IACHR agreed that participation must occur before data centers are built and before governments and corporations finalize their agreements.

«There can be no just transition if territories are once again turned into sacrifice zones and communities are excluded from decisions about their own future,» concluded Lucio Cuenca. Watch the video of the hearing before the IACHR below (YouTube).

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