LatinNews Daily - 07 March 2018

Development: On 6 March, at a gathering in the Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV) of political opponents to the government led by President Nicolás Maduro, it was announced that representatives of healthcare, oil, academic, student, and business sectors have all agreed to put aside their differences and work together as a national unit to “rescue democracy”.... Read More

Ecuador: The national communications secretariat (Secom) has announced that President Lenín Moreno has accepted the resignations of electricity & renewable energy minister, Elsy Parodi, and economy & finance minister, Carlos de la Torre.... Read More

Development: On 5 March, Brazil’s supreme court of justice (STJ), the top appellate court, turned down a preventative habeas corpus request put forward by the defence lawyers for former president Lula da Silva.... Read More

* Swiss food company Nestlé has announced that it will be investing R$200m (US$62m) to build a Nescafé Dolce Gusto factory in Brazil's south-eastern state of Minas Gerais.... Read More

Development: On 6 March, El Salvador’s supreme electoral tribunal (TSE) apologised for a “mistake” in tallying the results of the congressional elections held two days earlier.... Read More

Central America... Read More

Development: On 6 March, Mexico’s foreign ministry (SRE) confirmed that US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and White House advisor, Jared Kushner, will meet Mexico's President Enrique Peña Nieto.... Read More

* The Comisión Federal de Competencia Económica (Cofece), Mexico’s federal anti-trust commission, has announced that it has opened an investigation into the probable existence of an illicit concentration in the domestic petrol distribution and sales market.... Read More

Development: On 6 March, Mario Abdo Benítez, the presidential candidate of Paraguay’s ruling Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC), criticised the rejection by the supreme court (CSJ) of a constitutional complaint against last year’s surreptitious attempts in congress to amend the constitution to introduce presidential re-election.... Read More

Mercosur: Paraguay’s foreign minister, Eladio Loizaga, has announced that delegations from the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) and Canada will begin negotiating a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) on 9 February.... Read More