LatinNews Daily - 15 March 2018

Development: On 14 March Ecuador’s unicameral national assembly elected Deputy Elizabeth Cabezas of the ruling Alianza País (AP) party as its new president.... Read More

Bolivia: At least seven prisoners have been reported dead following clashes in which some 2,500 police officers were deployed to recover control of Bolivia’s largest jail, Palmasola, located in Santa Cruz department.... Read More

Development: On 14 March, Marielle Franco, a city councillor in Rio de Janeiro for Brazil's left-wing Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL), was killed in Estácio neighbourhood, near the centre of Rio de Janeiro city.... Read More

*Credit ratings agency Fitch has downgraded several Brazilian banks after cutting the country’s sovereign issuer rating last month.... Read More

Development: On 14 March hundreds of employees and former workers at the Escobal silver mine, one of the largest in the world, took to the streets in Guatemala City outside the constitutional court (CC), calling on it to resolve an appeal which is keeping the project suspended.... Read More

Central America: Spain and the Central American integration system (Sica) -which comprises Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, and the Dominican Republic- have renewed their cooperation agreement for 2018-2021.... Read More

Development: In an interview with the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), published on 14 March, the former head of the specialised electoral crimes unit (Fepade) division at Mexico’s attorney general's office (PGR), Santiago Nieto Castillo, claimed a government official attempted to bribe him to stay silent about the Mexican government’s involvement with Brazilian engineering company Odebrecht.... Read More

*Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said that he is willing to accelerate the ongoing renegotiations of the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) with the Mexican and US governments in order to avoid them becoming bogged down by Mexico’s 1 July general election and the US’s November mid-term elections.... Read More

Development: On 14 March Paraguay’s chamber of deputies voted in favour of submitting Comptroller General Enrique García to an impeachment trial for dereliction of duty.... Read More

Chile: Chile's President Sebastián Piñera has named Hermes Soto Isla as the new director of the Carabineros militarised police.... Read More