LatinNews Daily - 17 January 2023

On 16 January, Brazil’s federal public prosecutors’ office (MPF) formally charged 39 people for their alleged involvement in the 8 January attacks against Brazil’s congress, presidential palace, and the supreme court (STF) headquarters in Brasília.... Read More

On 16 January Venezuela’s attorney general’s office issued an arrest warrant for Julio Borges, a leading figure in the political opposition, accusing him of treason and conspiracy related to a failed military uprising in 2019.... Read More

* Peru’s central bank (BCRP) has announced that the country’s fiscal deficit fell to 1.6% of GDP in 2022, marking a reduction of 0.9 percentage points on the 2021 deficit.... Read More

* Brazil’s national council of coffee exporters (Cecafé) has released its final report for 2022, showing record revenues for the country’s coffee exports despite a lower volume of exports compared to 2021.... Read More

On 16 January Rafael Curruchiche, the head of Guatemala’s attorney general (AG)’s special anti-impunity unit (Feci), announced the start of “legal actions” against Colombia’s defence minister, Iván Velásquez, who previously served as commissioner (2013-2019) for the now defunct United Nations (UN)-backed anti-corruption commission in Guatemala (Cicig).... Read More

*The Dominican Republic’s central bank (BCRD) has released a new report in which it forecast that GDP growth for 2022 would come in at 5.0%, driven by private consumption and the strong performance of the external sector.... Read More

On 16 January, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador named General Luis Rodríguez Bucio, former commander of the national guard (GN), as the country’s new deputy public security minister.... Read More

*Mexico’s government led by President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced it will temporarily impose a 50% tax on exports of white corn, stating it is necessary to stabilise domestic prices and ensure sufficient supply.... Read More

On 16 January the right-of-centre opposition Chile Vamos coalition and the centrist Demócratas appealed to the constitutional tribunal to overturn seven of the 13 pardons granted by President Gabriel Boric at the end of December.... Read More

* A new report by Argentina-based think tank Instituto de Estudios sobre la Realidad Argentina y Latinoamericana (IERAL) has highlighted that volumes of beef exports from the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) trade bloc formed by Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay reached record levels in 2022.... Read More