“Colombia declares 2nd state of emergency to subsidize small business wages”, 7 de mayo de 2020

…Colombia’s President Ivan Duque issued a second state of emergency on Wednesday and announced subsidies for small businesses to continue paying wages during an ongoing shutdown.

The second state of emergency since March 17 seeks to help small and medium-sized businesses pay wages, and prevent mass layoffs and bankruptcies.

The decree also gave small and medium-sized businesses until the end of the year to pay their taxes.

Specifically, the government will pay the companies $90 (COP350,000), which is 40% of the country’s minimum wage, to help them continue paying their personnel’s salaries.

The companies can claim the subsidies for a period of three months beginning next week on the condition they don’t fire any of their employees, said Finance Minister Alberto Carrasquilla…

Small and medium-sized business association ACOPI celebrated the decision to grant subsidies instead of credit that the business association said was not a viable option for many of the companies…