LatinNews Daily - 24 October 2018

Development: On 23 October El Salvador’s President Salvador Sánchez Cerén tweeted that “to migrate is a human right...Our solidarity with the march” – a reference to the caravan of Honduran migrants which set off for the US ten days ago via Mexico and Guatemala.... Read More

Development: On 23 October, during a debate in Brussels with Robert Maylle, the president of the International Crisis Group (ICG), Colombia’s President Iván Duque called on the European Union (EU) to further the diplomatic isolation of the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

* Colombia’s comptroller general (CGR) has reported that mining company Cerro Matoso SA, a subsidiary of multinational mining giant BHP Billiton, owes more than Col$170bn (US$54m) to the Colombian government in unpaid royalties.... Read More

Development: On 23 October, Brazil’s presidential candidates, Jair Bolsonaro (Partido Social Liberal, PSL) and Fernando Haddad (Partido dos Trabalhadores, PT), concentrated their campaigning activities in the city of Rio de Janeiro, ahead of the 28 October run-off vote.... Read More

* Brazil’s foreign minister, Aloysio Nunes, met with his Canadian counterpart Chrystia Freeland for the third Strategic Partnership Dialogue between Brazil and Canada in Ottawa.... Read More

* The governor of the Dominican Republic’s (DR) central bank (BCRD), Héctor Valdez Albizu, has revealed preliminary figures which show that the DR’s GDP growth in September was 8.6% year-on-year, bringing the accumulated rate for the year to 6.9%.... Read More

Development: On 23 October, Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador rejected the risk of macroeconomic destabilisation in the country should the construction of Mexico City’s new international airport (NAICM) be cancelled.... Read More

* Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said during a speech at a business summit that Mexico’s annual GDP growth rate could reach 4% if the country could attract more foreign investment.... Read More

Development: On 23 October thousands of people marched in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, and set up a protest camp outside the federal congress to demand the rejection of the 2019 draft budget presented by the government led by President Mauricio Macri.... Read More

* Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest trade figures, which show that Argentina posted a trade surplus of US$341m in September, the first surplus recorded by the country since December 2016.... Read More