LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 21 September 2018

Development: On 20 September, the presidential candidate of the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) party in Brazil’s 7 October general election, Fernando Haddad, was targeted by rivals in his first appearance in a presidential debate.... Read More

* Brazil’s agriculture & livestock minister, Blairo Maggi, has signed a new memorandum of understanding with his Chilean counterpart, Antonio Walker, allowing for the opening of a bilateral organic food market.... Read More

Development: On 20 September Argentina’s economy & finance minister, Nicolás Dujovne, expressed the government’s commitment to a floating exchange rate during an appearance before the budgetary and finance commission of the federal lower chamber of congress as part of the 2019 draft budget debate.... Read More

* Paraguay’s deputy foreign relations minister, Juan Ángel Delgadillo, has announced that the government led by President Mario Abdo Benítez has established a new multi-sectorial commission that will be tasked with coordinating all the initiatives necessary for Paraguay to become a member of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).... Read More

Bolivia’s President Evo Morales inaugurated a state-of-the-art new headquarters for the parliament of the Union of South American Nations (Unasur) on the outskirts of the central city of Cochabamba on 12 September.... Read More

Brazil has just over two weeks to go before the first round of its most uncertain presidential election in recent history, on 7 October.... Read More

Argentina’s federal congress began debating the draft budget for 2019 this week.... Read More

BRAZIL | Ban on plastic straws.... Read More

Chile’s lower chamber of congress has thrown out a constitutional challenge by the political opposition to remove three magistrates sitting on the supreme court (CSJ) for “abandonment of duties” after they released seven prisoners in July who had been convicted of crimes against humanity committed under the military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).... Read More