LatinNews Daily - 02 October 2019

On 1 October, the two leading candidates in Uruguay’s presidential race, Daniel Martínez of the leftist ruling Frente Amplio (FA) coalition and Luis Lacalle Pou of the centre-right opposition Partido Nacional (PN, Blancos), took part in a televised debate ahead of the 27 October general election.... Read More

On 1 October, Mercedes Aráoz resigned as vice president of Peru, thus relinquishing her appointment as interim president which she had accepted the previous day from members of congress resisting a presidential order for dissolution.... Read More

* Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno has signed a presidential decree removing all subsidies on diesel and low-octane petrol fuel, which costs the state an estimated US$1.4bn a year, as part of his government efforts to reduce government spending and balance the public accounts.... Read More

On 1 October, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro addressed a group of wildcat miners (‘garimpeiros’) in front of the Planalto presidential palace in Brasília, after meeting with some of their representatives to hear their demands.... Read More

* Brazil’s federal senate has approved the base text of the pension reform in a first round of voting in the plenary, with 56 votes in favour and 19 against.... Read More

On 1 October, thousands took to the streets in Haiti's capital Port-au-Prince and across the country, calling for President Jovenel Moïse to step down over his alleged embezzlement of funds from Venezuela’s discounted oil initiative Petrocaribe and his failure to govern.... Read More

* The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has announced a US$100m loan (which carries a 25-year term, a grace period of 5.5 years and a Libor-based interest rate) to support Costa Rica’s citizen security and violence prevention programme, which will focus on reducing assaults and homicides in 40 high-crime districts.... Read More

On 1 October the international human rights NGO Amnesty International (AI) launched its ‘No More Murders: Speaking Out for Environmental Activists in Mexico’ campaign, demanding that the government ensure the protection of those defending the country’s diverse ecosystems, wildlife, and territories.... Read More

* The executive secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America & the Caribbean (Eclac), Alicia Bárcena has congratulated the Mexican government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador for its social programmes.... Read More

* Argentina’s supreme court (CSJN) has issued a preliminary ruling that stipulates that the decision by the government led by President Mauricio Macri to temporarily reduce value-added tax (VAT) rate to 0% on a range of food products and to increase the income tax threshold must not affect the ‘co-participation funds’ distributed to provincial governments.... Read More