Latin American countries to get US$2.1bn debt cancellation
On 17 November 2006, Governors to the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) agreed to cancel US$2.1bn in debt owed by the five Latin American HIPCs to the IDB (Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua). The IDB is the biggest lender in Latin America and these nations owe on average one third of their overall debt stocks to the institution.

Latin American counties had not benefited as much from the debt cancellation agreed in Gleneagles in 2005 because this deal only covered debts owed to the World Bank, IMF and African Development Fund. With the inclusion now of the IDB in multilateral debt cancellation, these five countries can now benefit from the savings that can go to fighting poverty.

The only exception is Haiti, which has not implemented all the conditions attached to HIPC and will only receive debt cancellation once it completes this process. However campaigners are demanding that Haiti be granted debt cancellation now, without strings attached.

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