LatinNews Daily - 19 October 2018

Development: On 18 October, Brazil’s Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) filed a request to the country’s electoral court (TSE) for presidential frontrunner Jair Bolsonaro, of the Partido Social Liberal (PSL), to be declared ineligible for a period of eight years.... Read More

Development: On 18 October the governments of Ecuador and Venezuela expelled the top diplomats from the other’s embassies.... Read More

* Bolivia’s state-owned hydrocarbons firm (YPFB) announced that it has temporarily stopped the export of natural gas to Argentina due to a leak discovered at a gas pipeline.... Read More

* Brazilian pollster Datafolha has released its latest public opinion poll ahead of the second round of the presidential election scheduled for 28 October.... Read More

Development: On 18 October Guatemala’s 158-member unicameral national legislature approved changes to the criminal code.... Read More

* Costa Rica’s central bank (BCCR) has issued a statement expressing support for the government’s proposed fiscal reform initiative, approved by the 57-member unicameral national legislature on 5 October, that seeks to address the country’s widening fiscal deficit, which closed at 6.2% of GDP in 2017.... Read More

Development: On 18 October the caravan of over 3,000 migrants heading up from the Honduran city of San Pedro Sula reached the Guatemalan border with Mexico.... Read More

* Moody’s Investor Service, the international credit ratings agency, has released a new note warning against the recently announced proposals by Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador that his government will seek to stop all oil exports.... Read More

Development: On 18 October a Chilean martial court granted bail to General John Griffiths, the second-in-command in the Chilean army, who resigned on 16 October over fraud allegations.... Read More

* Chile’s central bank (BCCH) has increased its bench mark interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%.... Read More