LatinNews Daily - 19 April 2023

* Colombia’s senate has voted by a large majority to pass a bill that would ban fracking, approving the draft legislation with 62 votes in favour and nine against. The bill, which was submitted by the governing left-wing Pacto Histórico coalition, would ban fracking and the exploitation of non-conventional hydrocarbon deposits across the whole national territory. It now goes to the lower chamber of congress, where it must be approved in two debates before passing to President Gustavo Petro for promulgation. Colombia’s environmental licencing authority (Anla) last year approved a pilot fracking project by state oil company Ecopetrol in Puerto Wilches municipality, Santander department, generating fierce debate around the practice, which Petro has promised to ban.