LatinNews Daily - 05 January 2024

On 4 January El Salvador’s justice & security minister, Gustavo Villatoro, said that formal charges were being prepared against the leadership of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), one of El Salvador’s two main gangs.... Read More

On 4 January Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa announced the construction of two prisons which he said would be modelled on those built in El Salvador as part of that country’s crackdown on criminal gangs.... Read More

*Bolivia’s national statistics institute (INE) has announced that the monthly inflation rate in December was 0.63%, bringing the annual rate to 2.12%.... Read More

On 4 January the interim head of Brazil’s justice & public security ministry, Ricardo Cappelli, signed a protocol to bolster security in the capital region (‘Distrito Federal’, DF), ahead of the one-year anniversary of the 8 January riots.... Read More

*Brazil’s national federation of automobile dealers (Fenabrave) has released its figures for vehicle sales in December, showing that 400,020 new licence plate registrations were issued, a proxy for car sales.... Read More

*Nicaragua’s minister of development, industry & trade (MIFIC), Jesús Bermúdez, has said that under a new free trade agreement (FTA) with China, which took effect on 1 January, Nicaragua has the capacity to quintuple exports to China within five years, from US$200m currently to US$1bn within that period.... Read More

On 4 January Mexico’s national daily El Financiero published a survey showing Claudia Sheinbaum, the presidential candidate for the ruling Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena), had increased her lead over the main opposition contender, Xóchitl Gálvez.... Read More

*Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has indicated that it is considering reducing its benchmark interest rate, which has stood at its current level of 11.25% since March, this year.... Read More

On 4 January Argentina’s labour appeals court accepted another appeal against the labour reform contained within the decree of necessity and urgency (DNU) issued last month by President Javier Milei, which it partially suspended a day earlier in response to a legal challenge brought by the country’s largest trade union movement, Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT).... Read More

* Uruguay’s national statistics institute (INE) has released consumer price index (IPC) figures for December, indicating that monthly inflation was -0.11%, bringing the accumulated inflation rate for the 12 months up to December to 5.11%.... Read More