LatinNews Daily - 01 September 2020

On 31 August, Venezuela’s communications minister Jorge Rodríguez announced that 110 opposition figures in prison or in exile had been pardoned by de facto president, Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

* Ecuador’s President Lenín Moreno has announced that his government has reached a provisional agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to access some US$6.5bn in credit over the next 27 months, under the multilateral organisation’s Extended Fund Facility (EFF).... Read More

On 31 August, the Brazilian government led by President Jair Bolsonaro presented congress with its draft 2021 budget (PLOA), which sets the central government’s primary deficit target at 3% of GDP.... Read More

* Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has repeated that he does not support taxing solar energy, a position he had already adopted in January this year amid discussions with the national electricity agency (Aneel) on a possible solar tax and the phasing out of subsidies implemented in 2012 to encourage the production of solar energy.... Read More

On 31 August Guyana’s home affairs minister, Robeson Benn, called on demonstrators who had been staging protests on roads in the West Coast Berbice (WCB) area, in Region Five, to do so peacefully.... Read More

* The president of Costa Rica’s central bank (BCCR), Rodrigo Cubero, and Finance Minister Elian Villegas have sent a letter to the managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Kristalina Georgieva, requesting the start of negotiations regarding a US$1.75bn three-year financial assistance programme.... Read More

On 31 August Mexico’s national electoral institute (INE) ordered that the government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador remove a promotional video, on the basis that it violates constitutional provisions.... Read More

* Mexico’s finance ministry (SHCP) has published its public finances and debt report for July, which reveals the government registered a fiscal deficit over the January-to-July period of M$414.6bn (US$19.04bn), above the M$387.3bn figure it had predicted.... Read More

On 31 August, an arson attack in Chile’s southern Bío Bío Region left several vehicles burnt, as lorry drivers entered their fifth day of a national strike protesting against precisely these kinds of attacks. ... Read More

* Argentina’s economy minister Martín Guzmán has announced that Argentina secured 93.55% adhesion to its US$66bn restructuring agreement with private bondholders on sovereign debt issued under international law.... Read More