LatinNews Daily - 30 January 2026

*Colombia’s constitutional court (CC) has provisionally suspended a 22 December government decree which declared an ‘economic and social emergency’. This was then used to justify tax hikes, which the government said were necessary after a senate commission rejected a tax reform bill to raise Col$16.3tn (US$4.5bn) that was not accounted for in the 2026 budget. The suspension will remain in force until the CC makes a final decision. President Gustavo Petro criticised the ruling in a social media post, claiming that it amounted to “a rupture in the constitutional order, just because there is a government that is a friend of the working people” who he said should be shielded from the cost of servicing the national debt.