LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 16 November 2018

Development: On 15 November Chile’s President Sebastián Piñera pledged an investigation into the fatal shooting of an indigenous Mapuche man, Camilo Catrillanca Marin, which took place two days earlier in Ercilla town, in the impoverished southern region of La Araucanía.... Read More

Development: On 15 November, local media reported that Roberto Campos Neto, the Americas director at Banco Santander, has been chosen as the next president of Brazil’s central bank (BCB) by President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.... Read More

* Brazil’s Vice President-elect Hamilton Mourão has said that the incoming government led by President-elect Jair Bolsonaro will analyse the privatising of BR Distribuidora, one of the largest subsidiaries of the state-owned oil firm Petrobras, once it assumes office in January 2019.... Read More

* Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest inflation figures, which show that the national inflation rate increased by 45.9% year-on-year in October.... Read More

Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro said on 13 November that he had chosen retired four-star General Fernando Azevedo e Silva to be his defence minister.... Read More

Brazil’s electoral court Tribunal Superior Eleitoral (TSE) raised questions on 12 November about possible illegal donations to the successful presidential campaign by the right-winger Jair Bolsonaro, now president-elect.... Read More

“Never has Argentina conducted an [economic] adjustment of such magnitude without the [incumbent] government falling.” With these words Argentina’ finance minister, Nicolás Dujovne, greeted the news that a version of the zero-deficit 2019 draft budget tabled by the government led by President Mauricio Macri had been given final approval by the opposition-controlled federal senate.... Read More

“Not much of a man.” This is how Paraguay’s President Mario Abdo Benítez described his predecessor, Horacio Cartes (2013-August 2018), after Cartes made some disparaging remarks about one of the female members in the entourage that accompanied Abdo Benítez to his official visit to the Vatican.... Read More

Chile’s military has conducted the biggest overhaul of its high command since the return to democracy in 1990.... Read More

CHILE | Union protests.... Read More

In this November edition of Latin American Regional Report: Brazil & Southern Cone Group we analyse the results of the general election in Brazil and its implications for the country; the potential implications a major corruption scandal in Argentina and Uruguay; the problems affecting Argentina’s pension system; and the discovery of an ongoing pollution situation in Chile.... Read More

From January 2019 to December 2022, Jair Bolsonaro of the Partido Social Liberal (PSL) will be the president of Brazil.... Read More

Argentina continues to have the most precarious state pension system among 34 countries around the world, according to the Melbourne Mercer Global Pension Index 2018.... Read More

The seaside districts of Quintero and Puchuncaví in Chile’s Valparaíso Region, 90 miles northeast of the capital Santiago, rarely make the front pages of national newspapers – and even less frequently do they cause ripples in the international press.... Read More

Interest rate increase: On 18 October Chile’s central bank (BCCH) increased its bench mark interest rate by 25 basis points to 2.75%.... Read More

On 30 October the oral trial of various businessmen implicated in the so-called ‘Ruta del Dinero K’ money laundering and bribery scandal began in Argentina.... Read More