LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 25 January 2019

Development: On 24 January, Jean Wyllys, a federal deputy for Brazil’s left-wing Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL), announced that he was relinquishing his seat as deputy in congress and leaving the country, citing increased harassment and death threats.... Read More

* Brazil’s economy minister, Paulo Guedes, said that he will look to lower business income tax in Brazil from an average of 34% to 15%, as a way of attracting more foreign investment.... Read More

Development: On 24 January, Santiago Soto, the deputy director at Uruguay’s planning and budgets office (OPP), rejected the doubts about the veracity of official government economic data raised by Un Solo Uruguay (USU), the agricultural producers’ protest movement, as being “irresponsible and baseless”.... Read More

* Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest figures on monthly economic activity (Emae) which reveal that there was a fall of 7.5% in November 2018 year-on-year.... Read More

Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri took the contentious decision this week to sidestep congress and issue a decree enacting a bill held up in congress for over two-and-a-half years.... Read More

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro made his debut on the world stage this week when he addressed heads of state, top executives and global leaders from all sectors at the annual World Economic Forum (WEF) summit in the Swiss Alpine resort of Davos-Klosters.... Read More

The Paraguayan government led by President Mario Abdo Benítez is currently trying to come up with a new plan to resolve a major problem that has afflicted the past three administrations – how to defeat the Ejército del Pueblo Paraguayo (EPP) insurgent guerrilla group.... Read More