LatinNews Daily - 14 January 2021

On 13 January Mexico’s foreign minister, Marcelo Ebrard, said the Mexican government would invoke workers’ rights provisions in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) on regional trade to guarantee that Mexican migrant workers in the US are given access to coronavirus (Covid-19) vaccines.... Read More

On 13 January, Peru’s interim president Francisco Sagasti introduced new restrictions to try and contain the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, acknowledging the onset of a “second wave” of infections in Peru.... Read More

* Colombia’s national tax authority (Dian) has reported that the tax take in 2020 totalled Col$146.2trn (US$42bn), falling short of the initial target of Col$164.5trn, but exceeding the adjusted target of Col$136.4trn, introduced following the onset of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

On 13 January, international NGO Human Rights Watch (HRW) published its annual report on the state of human rights worldwide in which it accused Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro of having “tried to sabotage public health measures aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 [coronavirus]”.... Read More

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has released the November 2020 figures for the performance of the services sector, which expanded by 2.6% compared with October, the sixth consecutive month of positive growth, following the sharp downturn between February and May as a result of the onset of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.... Read More

On 13 January representatives from El Salvador’s corporation of municipalities (Comures), the national mayors’ association, presented a new complaint before the attorney general’s office (AG) against Finance Minister Alejandro Zelaya, over the delay in receiving money owed from the economic and social development of municipalities fund (Fodes).... Read More

* Costa Rica’s tourism institute (ICT), a government body, has released new figures which show that just 1.01m international tourists visited Costa Rica in 2020, a third of the more than 3m who visited the country in 2019.... Read More

* Carlos Capistrán, chief economist for Mexico and Canada at US multinational investment bank and financial services holding company Bank of America (BofA), has warned that the elimination of autonomous government entities, as Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has recently proposed, could affect Mexico’s credit ratings and accelerate the process of it losing its investment grade, among other factors such as rising public debt.... Read More

On 13 January, Chile’s congress began to debate a bill which would decriminalise abortion within the first 14 weeks of pregnancy.... Read More

* Chile’s central bank (BCCh) has announced a gradual programme to reposition and expand foreign currency reserves to around 18% of GDP, in order to strengthen the country’s international liquidity position.... Read More