LatinNews Daily - 26 January 2024

On 25 January Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro said that a democratic agreement reached with the political opposition in October is “on life support” as the government wages an intensifying crackdown on its opponents.... Read More

*Ecuador’s country risk, which measures the uncertainty associated with investing in a country, has fallen to 1,750 points, according to the central bank (BCE).... Read More

On 25 January Brazil’s federal police (PF) served search & seizure warrants in the properties of federal deputy Alexandre Ramagem, former director (2019-2022) of the national intelligence agency (Abin) and close ally of former president Jair Bolsonaro (2019-2023).... Read More

*A federal judge in Brazil’s Minas Gerais state has ordered Brazilian mining giant Vale, Australian mining company BHP, and their joint venture Samarco to pay R$47.6bn (US$9.7bn) in “collective moral damages” for the high-profile social and environmental disaster in 2015 resulting from a Samarco-operated tailings dam bursting near the town of Mariana, Minas Gerais.... Read More

On 25 January delegations from Guyana and Venezuela, headed up by foreign ministers, Hugh Todd and Yván Gil respectively, met in Brazil.... Read More

*Jan Hoffmann, chief of trade logistics at the United Nations (UN) Conference on Trade and Development (Unctad), has warned of “abnormally low water levels in the Panama Canal due to climate change impacts” citing this as an example of disruptions to global trade and supply chains.... Read More

On 25 January the state attorney general’s office (FGJEM) in Mexico’s most populous state, Estado de México (Edomex), announced that state attorney general (AG) José Luis Cervantes Martínez had been the victim of an armed attack.... Read More

*Coparmex, Mexico’s leading private sector lobby, has called on workers affiliated with the independent Audi Mexico trade union (Sitaudi) to restart dialogue with the car manufacturing company and “reach an agreement that benefits both parties and therefore avoids affecting the economic development of the automotive industry in Mexico.” Unionised workers at the Mexican unit of German carmaker Audi went on strike on 24 January after negotiations to reach an agreement on wage increases failed.... Read More

Political tensions escalated in Argentina on 25 January after harsh remarks about provincial governors made by President Javier Milei were leaked to the local media, which is reporting that the infrastructure minister, Guillermo Ferraro, has been fired as a result.... Read More

*Paraguay’s economy & finance ministry (MEF) has announced that the country’s foreign trade totalled US$27.99bn in 2023, an 8.4% increase on 2022.... Read More