LatinNews Daily - 04 January 2019

Development: On 3 January, Julio Oliva, the president of El Salvador’s electoral authority (TSE), invited the leadership of presidential frontrunner Nayib Bukele’s Nuevas Ideas party to publicly debate Bukele’s claims of electoral fraud.... Read More

Development: On 3 January thousands of people took part in protest marches in cities across Peru demanding the resignation of Attorney General Pedro Chávarry.... Read More

* The president of Ecuador’s national assembly (AN), Elizabeth Cabezas, has announced a 5% reduction in the AN budget for the year.... Read More

Development: On 3 January, University of Chicago-trained economist Roberto Castello Branco took over as CEO of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras, defending more competition and less state intervention.... Read More

* Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has said that the proposed pension reform being discussed by his new government will establish a minimum retirement age of 57 for women and 62 for men, to be gradually increased throughout his term with the possibility for the following administration to then raise it to 63 or 64.... Read More

* The Honduran government led by President Juan Orlando Hernández has announced a US$3m donation from Taiwan to support the Honduran agricultural education system.... Read More

Development: On 3 January, a wave of homicides was recorded across Mexico, including the murder in the state of Oaxaca of a municipal representative from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) party.... Read More

* Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has warned that domestic economic growth this year will be conditioned by the high level of uncertainty surrounding the lack of clarity over the economic policies that will be adopted by the new administration led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.... Read More

Development: On 3 January experts consulted on a monthly basis by Argentina's central bank (BCRA) forecast inflation of 28.7% in 2019 and 19.9% in 2020.... Read More

* According to figures from Paraguay’s national civil aviation authority (Dinac), Asunción’s ‘Silvio Pettirossi’ international airport registered 1.21m regular passengers in 2018 (not including in transit), up from 1.18m in 2017.... Read More