LatinNews Daily - 06 August 2026

*Guatemala’s congress has approved a new law modernising the country’s port and logistics infrastructure with the support of the private sector and the US. Congress voted overwhelmingly by 123 votes in favour in the 160-seat body to create the new autonomous national port authority (APN), whose board of directors will be made up of representatives from the public sector and one from the private sector. Guatemala’s main private sector lobbies, led by the Comité Coordinador de Asociaciones Agrícolas, Comerciales, Industriales y Financieras (Cacif), heralded a historic step that would bring legal certainty to investment and dynamise trade. They argue that the country’s main port terminals – Puerto Quetzal in the Pacific department of Escuintla and Santo Tomás de Castilla in the Atlantic department of Izabal – are at saturation point, causing major bottlenecks, with delays to unload cargo ships, resulting in a logistical surcharge that increases costs for the consumer.

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