Latinnews Daily - 31 January 2018

Development: On 30 January, the disciplinary committee of Peru’s main right-wing opposition Fuerza Popular (FP, Fujimoristas) party recommended the expulsion from the party of Kenji Fujimori and two other FP national deputies. ... Read More

Ecuador: The government led by President Lenín Moreno has accepted the resignation of mining minister Javier Córdova Unda.... Read More

Development: On 30 January, a judge from Brazil’s supreme court (STF) rejected a request from the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) to block the arrest of former president Lula da Silva (2003-2011) for corruption and money laundering.... Read More

* President Michel Temer has sent a police task force to enhance security in the north-eastern state of Ceará following a series of violent incidents linked to drugs-related crime.... Read More

Development: On 30 January, Panama’s 71-member unicameral national legislature rejected President Juan Carlos Varela’s choice of Zuleyka Moore and Ana Lucrecia Tovar de Zarak as magistrates for the nine-member supremecourt (CSJ) replacing two whose ten-year terms expire this month.... Read More

Central America... Read More

Development: On 30 January, Mexico’s interior minister, Alfonso Navarrete, said the goverment would send 5,000 members of the federal security forces to different areas in the country to reduce violence.... Read More

* The federal finance ministry (SHCP) has reported that the country closed 2017 with a primary fiscal surplus of 1.4% of GDP.... Read More

Development: On 30 January, Chile’s interior ministry announced it was calling for an investigation into the Carabineros militarised police to be re-opened amid claims that they tampered with evidence in relation to an operation carried out last year in the southern Araucanía area in which eight indigenous Mapuche leaders were arrested.... Read More

Paraguay: The public works & communications ministry (MOPC) has called a meeting with representatives from the Asociación de Camioneros del Paraguay, the local lorry drivers’ union, to try to resolve the conflict caused by its recent decision to authorise from 20 February the circulation of long combination vehicles (LCVs) - double trailer lorries - from Brazil in the country.... Read More