LatinNews Daily - 24 January 2019

Development: On 23 January, Juan Guaidó, the president of Venezuela’s national assembly (AN), formally declared himself as the country’s interim president and said that he will now seek to organise a new general election process to elect a successor to the de facto president, Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

* Bolivia’s national ports administration (ASP-B) and its Uruguayan counterpart (ANP) have signed an operative agreement which will improve the import and export of Bolivian merchandise through the Paraguay-Paraná waterway.... Read More

Development: On 23 January, Brazil’s government chief-of-staff, Onyx Lorenzoni, presented 35 goals to be met within the new administration’s first 100 days in office.... Read More

* A total of 529,500 jobs were created in Brazil’s formal employment sector in 2018, the first positive result since 2014.... Read More

Development: On 23 January, Guatemala’s constitutional court (CC) granted a provisional protective measure to suspend impeachment proceedings against three CC magistrates.... Read More

* Costa Rica’s official export promotion agency (Procomer) has released new figures which show that exports of goods from Costa Rica totaled US$11.3bn in 2018 – a 6.5% increase on the US$10.62bn recorded in 2017.The figures revealed by Procomer indicate that Costa Rica’s main export sector was medical devices (US$3.32bn), up 18% on 2017, followed by pineapples (US$990m) and bananas (US$981m).... Read More

Development: On 23 January, Mexico’s national migration institute (Inami) said it had registered over 10,000 migrants, mainly from Central America, seeking asylum at the southern border as part of a programme by the new government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.... Read More

* More than 140 freight trains are stranded in the state of Michoacán due to blockades by the  Coordinadora Nacional de Trabjadores de la Educación (CNTE) teachers' union, which is demanding backdated salaries.... Read More

Development: On 23 January, Uruguay’s foreign ministry released a joint statement with Mexico in which both countries urged Venezuelan society to find a peaceful and democratic solution to the deepening crisis in their country.... Read More

* Gustavo Cañonero, the vice president of Argentina’s central bank (BCRA), has said it will take a “long time” for the national inflation rate to fall.... Read More