LatinNews Daily - 27 March 2018

Development: On 26 March, the São Paulo stock exchange rose on increased odds that Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles could be running for the presidency in Brazil's October general election.... Read More

Development: On 26 March, the presidential candidate of Colombia’s centrist Partido Liberal (PL), Humberto de la Calle, said he will ask the national electoral council (CNE) if there is any way for him to register an electoral alliance with Sergio Fajardo, the presidential candidate of the Coalición Colombia centre-left coalition.... Read More

Colombia: Colombia’s finance minister, Mauricio Cárdenas, has announced his immediate withdrawal from the executive boards of Ecopetrol, Colombia’s state-owned oil company, and Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional (FDN), a service provider for infrastructure projects headquartered in Bogotá.... Read More

* In 2017, Brazil received 6.5m tourists, up 0.6% from 2016, when the country hosted the Summer Olympic Games.... Read More

Development: On 26 March, Costa Rica’s electoral authority (TSE) ordered the conservative Partido Restauración Nacional (PRN), the party of presidential run-off candidate Fabricio Alvarado Muñoz, to refrain from invoking religious motifs and asking religious leaders for economic support ahead of the 1 April second-round election.... Read More

Central America... Read More

Development: On 26 March, the governments of Mexico and the US signed three agreements to facilitate customs inspections, enhance border security, and improve safety for agricultural exports.... Read More

* Mexico’s national hydrocarbon commission (CNH), the sector regulator, has reported that 21 firms from 14 different countries have submitted bids for the ‘Round 3.1’ of oil exploration and exploitation concession contracts that will be auctioned on 27 March.... Read More

Development: On 26 March, Paraguay’s chamber of deputies decided to postpone its discussion of the partial veto issued by President Horacio Cartes against a political reform bill recently approved by the legislature.... Read More

Argentina: The credit rating agency Standard and Poor’s (S&P) has released a report approving of the government's new strategies to reduce debt in Argentina, but the long-term credit rating remained at 'B+'.... Read More