☀ Domingo Brief — Bukele’s Crackdown Continues

Welcome back to the Domingo Brief! This week, we’re keeping up with Argentina’s credit rating upgrade, another chapter in the Panama Canal saga, and more.

Trivia of the Week 🎯

About 32% of you guessed Cuba as the sole country in Latin America to still retain the death penalty as a presently legal criminal sentence. However, while the death penalty may be imposed for various severe felonies, it is seldom resorted to, with the last executions in the country carried out in 2003. Other countries in the region, namely Brazil, Guatemala, and Peru, do permit the death penalty, but only in wartime or military courts, having abolished it for civilian crimes. In legal-speak, Cuba’s retention of capital punishment qualifies it as retentionist.

Each week, tune back in for the answer to the previous week’s trivia question. No cheating!

🇦🇷 Argentina had its credit rating upgraded by global credit rating agency Moody’s, rising two notches to Caa1 status. The country’s economy is considered to have a stable outlook following a six-year financial crisis, with government decisions to liberalize exchange and capital controls under President Javier Milei viewed as largely effective. Moody’s cited a more open capital account as the key for Argentina to address its external debt payments, having defaulted on previous bonds nine times.

🇧🇷 Brazil’s lower house passed a bill to overhaul environmental regulations, drawing criticism from the country’s environmental minister. The bill would effectively weaken federal agencies’ environmental licensing powers, reducing review processes for large-scale projects, and paving the way for the construction of a highway that runs 900km through the western part of the Amazon. President Lula da Silva, who casts himself as an environmental defender and will preside over the United Nations COP30 climate talks later this year in Belem, has veto power over the bill, but has not yet commented on which decision he will take.

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