LatinNews Daily - 01 April 2020

On 31 March US Secretary of State Michael Pompeo presented a ‘Framework for a Peaceful Democratic Transition in Venezuela’, in which both claimants to the country's presidency – de facto president Nicolás Maduro and US-recognised challenger Juan Guaidó - would step aside to allow a new council of state to preside over presidential elections.... Read More

* Colombia’s national unemployment rate reached 12.2% in February, up 0.4 percentage points on the same month in 2019, according to the latest figures from the national statistics institute (Dane).... Read More

On 31 March, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro gave a nationally televised address in which he stressed his government’s commitment to protecting both lives and livelihoods throughout the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, and called for a “national pact” to work towards this. ... Read More

* Brazil’s central bank (BCB) has released the latest fiscal results, according to which Brazil’s public sector saw a R$20.9bn (US$4.01bn) primary deficit in February this year, driven by a R$26.9bn deficit in the central government’s accounts, while regional governments and state companies posted a R$5.2bn and R$770m surplus, respectively.... Read More

On 31 March Guyana’s supreme court ruled that it did not have the jurisdiction to rule on an injunction against the country’s electoral commission (Gecom) which had prevented it from carrying out a national recount of the votes cast in the 2 March general election.... Read More

* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has announced a US$143m disbursement to Honduras to fight the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

On 31 March, a group of healthcare workers from a hospital run by the Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social (IMSS), Mexico’s social security institute, blocked traffic along the Eje Central Lázaro Cárdenas main thoroughfare in Mexico City protesting over the lack of medical equipment as they work with coronavirus (Covid-19) patients. ... Read More

* Francisco Cervantes, the president of Mexico’s national confederation of industrial chambers (Concamin), has warned that the lack of tax relief offered to Mexican busineses by the government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador amid the coronavirus (Covid-19) emergency could result the collapse of the domestic economy.... Read More

On 31 March federal legislators from Argentina’s centre-right main opposition coalition, Juntos por el Cambio, sent an open letter to President Alberto Fernández calling for temporary cuts to public sector salaries to help address the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

* Chile’s unemployment rate for the December 2019 to February 2020 rolling quarter was 7.8%, a 0.8 percentage point increase on the same period in 2019, according to figures from Chile’s national statistics institute (INE).... Read More