LatinNews Daily - 27 April 2018

Development: On 26 April, Luis Alejandro Ratti, one of the four presidential candidates standing against Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro in the 20 May presidential election organised by the Maduro government, called on the national electoral council (CNE) to offer full guarantees for the process.... Read More

Bolivia: The Movimiento al Socialismo (MAS) government led by Bolivia's President Evo Morales and umbrella trade union Central Obrera Boliviana (COB) have agreed on a 5.5% general salary increase and a 3% increase in the national minimum wage for this year, bringing the monthly minimum wage from B2,000 (US$287.66) to B2,060 (US$296.29).... Read More

Development: On 26 April, the federal intervention security committee decided to take down 19 of the 38 police pacification units (UPPs) in Brazil's Rio de Janeiro state.... Read More

* Brazil’s federal police have asked the supreme court (STF) to extend for another 60 days their investigation into President Michel Temer about alleged irregularities in a ports decree to benefit local logistics companies.... Read More

Development: On 26 April, Costa Rica’s president-elect Carlos Alvarado Quesada, of the ruling centre-left Partido Acción Ciudadana (PAC), announced his new cabinet.... Read More

Caribbean... Read More

Development: On 26 April, the frontrunner in Mexico’s presidential race, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and one of his main rivals, José Antonio Meade, both took to the campaign trail in the violence-afflicted north of the country where they presented differing proposals for improving public security.... Read More

* Mexico’s national statistics institute (Inegi) has released new figures which show that the national unemployment rate in March was 3.2%, less than the 3.5% registered in March 2017.... Read More

Development: On 26 April, Chile's President Sebastián Piñera met his Argentine peer Mauricio Macri in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires.... Read More

Argentina: Treasury Minister Nicolás Dujovne has said that the sharp fall in the value of the Argentine peso compared to the US dollar in recent days will only have a “minor impact” on the country’s inflation rate.... Read More