LatinNews Daily - 12 September 2023

On 11 September Chile’s President Gabriel Boric addressed a ceremony attended by heads of state and other dignitaries in the La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago to mark the 50th anniversary since the military coup that toppled Salvador Allende (1970-1973) and ushered in a 17-year dictatorship under General Augusto Pinochet.... Read More

On 11 September the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released its annual report on Colombia, which states that the 2022 coca harvest was the largest on record at 230,000 hectares (ha).... Read More

* Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro, who is currently on a tour of China, has announced a new partnership between Venezuela’s special economic zones (SEZs) and the Chinese cities of Shanghai and Shenzhen and the province of Shandong.... Read More

On 11 September Brazil’s environment ministry celebrated National Cerrado Day, dedicated to the conservation of the country’s second largest biome, which has seen yearly rises in deforestation.  ... Read More

* Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has called for a meeting with leaders from the European Union (EU) to urgently decide the fate of the free trade agreement between the EU and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) regional trade bloc which includes Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay.... Read More

On 11 September the Dominican Republic’s President Luis Abinader threatened to seal the country’s border with Haiti unless a dispute over the construction of a canal in Haiti, which would divert a shared river, is resolved.... Read More

* The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has released a new statement following the conclusion of an Article IV visit to Guyana which states that the Guyanese economy continues to “grow very rapidly, supported by the government’s modernisation plans, including the unparalleled oil sector expansion”.... Read More

On 11 September Mexico’s Interior Minister Luisa María Alcalde defended the government’s proposed 2024 budget, which the finance ministry (SHCP) presented to congress on 8 September.... Read More

*Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) has released new figures on international visitors, which show that Mexico received 3.97m international tourists in July 2023, a 7.7% increase on the 3.68m who visited the country in July 2022 and up from 3.61m who visited in June 2023.... Read More

* Sergio Massa, Argentina’s economy minister and presidential candidate for the ruling left-of-centre Unión por la Patria (UP) coalition, has announced measures that will further raise the lower limit at which workers must pay income tax.... Read More