The growing presence of Chinese companies in Latin America, as part of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), has led to an increase in the number of human rights violations and labor exploitation complaints.

In Uruguay, the company China Machinery Engineering Corporation (CMEC), responsible for building a power transmission network, has been charged with labor irregularities, inhumane working conditions, and the death of a worker.

In Brazil, the Labor Prosecutor’s Office (MPT) rescued 163 Chinese workers from a factory construction site for Chinese electric car manufacturer BYD… [see more here, including BYD comments].

Uruguay’s National Union of Construction and Single Industries (SUNCA) has filed a criminal complaint against Chinese company CMEC for alleged forced labor during the construction of a high-voltage power line between the towns of Tacuarembó and Salto. “Since the beginning of the project, about two years ago, the union has denounced grueling working hours, unpaid wages, and undignified living conditions…. Of the 700 workers on site, 500 are foreigners, mainly Ecuadorian and Chinese citizens, according to Carve.

The unions’ demands intensified in February, when a vehicle used by CMEC overturned on the highway while transporting seven Chinese workers to their lodgings. One of them died, while others were hospitalized in serious condition…