LatinNews Daily - 17 September 2018

Development: On 16 September Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra ordered congress to hold an extraordinary session to debate his government’s proposed anti-corruption reforms as a ‘matter of confidence’ in his administration.... Read More

* Bolivia’s President Evo Morales has promulgated a new law on ethanol – marking Bolivia’s official entry into the production of biofuels as part of efforts to substitute gasoline imports.... Read More

Development: On 16 September, Brazil’s far-right presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro broadcast a live video in which he attacked the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) and its presidential candidate, Fernando Haddad, and spoke of a risk of fraud in the country’s upcoming 7 October general election.... Read More

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (IBGE) has reported that activity the country’s services sector contracted by 2.2% in July compared to June this year, when it grew by 4.8% following a sharp contraction in May, a consequence of the eleven-day lorry drivers’ strike that brought the country to a standstill.... Read More

Development: On 16 September Guatemala’s five-member constitutional court (CC) ruled unanimously that Iván Velásquez, the head of the United Nations (UN)-backed International Commisison against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig), should be permitted to return to the country.... Read More

* Haiti’s bicameral national legislature (comprising the 119-member chamber of deputies and the 30-member senate) has approved the government plan of Jean Henry Céant, President Jovenel Moïse’s pick for new prime minister.... Read More

Development: On 16 September, Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador sought to assure the public that his government would stick by its campaign commitments, in spite of the country’s state of “bankruptcy”.... Read More

* The general director of economic research at Mexico's central bank (Banxico), Daniel Chiquiar, has said that President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s plan to reduce taxes in Mexico’s border areas with the US would, in principal, be beneficial for investment.... Read More

Development: On 16 September the Argentine government led by President Mauricio Macri presented its draft budget for 2019 to the federal congress.... Read More

* Uruguay’s minister of livestock, agriculture & fishing, Enzo Benech, has announced that “the opening of the Japanese market for [Uruguayan] meat is imminent”.... Read More

Central America: On 7 September the US Department of State announced it was recalling the US Ambassador to the Dominican Republic, Robin Bernstein; the US Ambassador to El Salvador, Jean Manes; and the US Charge d’Affaires in Panama, Roxanne Cabral, for consultations over the recent decisions by these countries to no longer recognise Taiwan as an independent country and to establish formal diplomatic relations with mainland China.... Read More