LatinNews Daily - 08 January 2021

On 7 January, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro elicited strong criticism for repeating baseless claims that the November 2020 election in the US was marred by fraud, and suggesting that Brazil could suffer the same fate in its next general election in 2022.... Read More

On 7 January, Venezuela's newly formed national assembly (AN) appointed a legislative commission tasked with promoting political dialogue in the country, and another commission to investigate crimes allegedly committed by the previous national assembly (2016-2020).... Read More

* Spanish renewable energy company Grenergy has connected two wind farms in the province of Chota, Cajamarca region, with a combined capacity of 36.8 megawatts, to Peru’s national electrical grid.... Read More

* Brazil’s state-owned oil firm, Petrobras, has announced that it registered record production levels in 2020.... Read More

On 7 January Max Délices, the director of Haiti’s electoral commission (CEP), announced the electoral calendar for the 2021 presidential, legislative and municipal elections, as well as a controversial constitutional referendum.... Read More

* Guatemala’s economy ministry has forecast that Guatemala’s GDP shrunk 2% in 2020 based on central bank (Banguat) preliminary data – less than the 3.5% contraction forecast in March 2020.... Read More

On 7 January Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said that he plans to send new constitutional reform proposals to congress whereby autonomous federal government entities, including the federal telecommunications institute (IFT) and the national institute for the access of information (Inai), would be subsumed into existing ministries.... Read More

* Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has released the minutes of a meeting held by its board of directors, which forecasts that Mexico’s GDP will contract by 9% in 2020, but rise by 3.34%-3.44% in 2021.... Read More

On 7 January Japan’s foreign minister, Toshimitsu Motegi, arrived in Brazil for the final leg of a whistlestop five-nation tour of Latin America, which began in Mexico and then included all four members of the Southern Common Market (Mercosur). Analysis:... Read More

*Argentina’s national statistics institute (Indec) has reported that construction activity in the country increased by 6.2% in November 2020 compared to the same month in 2019.... Read More