LatinNews Daily - 16 March 2018

Development: On 15 March, Peru’s unicameral national congress approved a motion to subject President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to a new impeachment trial by the legislature over his moral incapacity to govern as a result of his links to Brazilian engineering firm, Odebrecht.... Read More

Colombia: Representatives from the Colombian government and the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) guerrillas have announced that they have formally opened a new peace dialogue round.... Read More

Development: On 15 March, tens of thousands of Brazilians protested against the killing Rio de Janeiro city councillor and human rights activist, Marielle Franco, from the leftist Partido Socialismo e Liberdade (PSOL).... Read More

* Brazil and Panama have discussed the possibility of taking each other off their respective blacklists for tax avoidance.... Read More

Development: On 15 March, the Dominican Republic (DR)’s foreign minister, Miguel Vargas, said that the murder of a DR couple in the border town of Pedernales last month, for which two Haitian nationals have been held responsible, was an “isolated incident”.... Read More

Central America... Read More

Development: On 15 March, 18 members of the Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación (CJNG) drug trafficking organisation (DTO) were arrested on suspicion of the abduction and murder of two agents working for Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office (PGR) last month.... Read More

* Mexico’s economy minister, Ildefonso Guajardo, has warned that if a full agreement over the renegotiation of the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta) between Mexico, Canada, and the US is not reached by April, it is unlikely that a deal could be concluded this year.... Read More

Development: On 15 March, the new government led by Sebastián Piñera shelved an initiative inherited from the previous administration to rewrite the Chilean constitution.... Read More

Argentina: The managing director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), Christine Lagarde, said she is “impressed” and “congratulated” the Argentine government led by President Mauricio Macri for its efforts to reduce the fiscal deficit.... Read More