LatinNews Daily - 18 May 2023

On 17 May, Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso dissolved the national assembly in a move that will trigger snap general elections.... Read More

* Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso has issued an executive decree modifying his government’s diluted 2021 tax reform, in his first decree since his dissolution of the national assembly yesterday.... Read More

On 17 May, Deltan Dallagnol, an opposition deputy in Brazil’s lower chamber and a former prosecutor who had a leading role in the ‘Lava Jato’ corruption probe, slammed the decision by the top electoral court (TSE) the previous day to remove him from his seat in congress, accusing the authorities of “vengeance” against him.... Read More

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has released the latest retail sales figures, showing a monthly increase in sales volume of 0.8% in March and a 3.2% increase compared to March 2022.... Read More

On 17 May, over 5,000 members of El Salvador’s armed forces and 500 police (PNC) officers were deployed to Nueva Concepción municipality, Chalatenango department.... Read More

* Cuba’s deputy prime minister and foreign trade & investment minister, Ricardo Cabrisas, and the president of Cuba’s chamber of commerce, Antonio Carricarte, have attended the launch of a two-day Cuba-Russia economic business forum in Cuba’s capital, Havana.... Read More

On 17 May, Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said his government was investigating the mass kidnapping of migrants that took place on the border between San Luis Potosí and Nuevo León states the previous day.... Read More

*Mexico’s President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has received top business representatives in the national palace. Daniel Chávez Morán, founder of Mexican tourism consortium Grupo Vidanta; Germán Larrea, owner of Mexican conglomerate Grupo México; Miguel Rincón, CEO of Mexican paper manufacturer Bio Pappel; Bernardo Gómez, CEO of Mexican media giant Televisa; and Carlos Hank, CEO of Mexico’s financial group, Grupo Financiero Banorte, were among those reported to have arrived at the national palace for the meeting.... Read More

On 17 May, the local media reported that Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernández would speak at a political event on 25 May, the day after she once more ruled herself out of running for the ruling left-of-centre Frente de Todos (FdT) coalition in the 22 October presidential election.... Read More

* Chile’s lower chamber of congress has approved a bill which has already been ratified by the senate which establishes a new mining royalty tax for the exploitation of copper and lithium.... Read More