The negotiation of the Andean free-trade agreement consolidated the implementation phase of intellectual property regulation of biodiversity in Latin America, establishing new forms of control over societies and their strategic resources consistent with a strategy of territorial deployment of U.S. national security policies. Aspects of the agreement such as patents and public health, protection of information, patents for secondary uses, and the extension of patents to a 20-year period have become focal points of controversy in the specialized world of politicians, jurists, and economists.