LatinNews Daily - 31 May 2018

Development: On 30 May, oil workers’ union the Federação Única dos Petroleiros (FUP) organised a three-day strike.... Read More

Development: On 30 May, national legislators from Colombia’s centrist Partido Liberal (PL) party announced their decision to back the bid of Iván Duque, the presidential candidate of the right-wing opposition Centro Democrático (CD) party, in the second round of the presidential election scheduled for 17 June.... Read More

Venezuela: Canada’s Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland has announced that the Canadian government will be imposing new economic sanctions on 14 officials in the Venezuelan government led by President Nicolás Maduro.... Read More

*Brazil’s national statistics agency (Ibge) has reported that the country's GDP grew by 0.4% in the first quarter of 2018 compared with the previous three months.... Read More

Development: On 30 May Nicaragua’s main business lobby, Cosep, urged President Daniel Ortega and the Frente Sandinista de Liberación Nacional (FSLN) government to hold early elections in order to resolve the ongoing crisis stemming from the brutal crackdown on anti-government protesters which began last month.... Read More

Costa Rica: Costa Rica’s new finance minister Rocío Aguilar has presented a package of cost-saving measures aimed at reducing the country’s fiscal deficit which reached 6.2% of GDP in 2017, up from 5.3% in 2016.... Read More

Development: On 30 May the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called on the Mexican government to fully clear up recent incidents of suspected enforced disappearances by the federal security forces in the north-eastern border state of Tamaulipas.... Read More

*Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has released its new quarterly report in which it maintains its GDP growth forecast for 2018 at 2%-3%.... Read More

Development: On 30 May Argentina’s federal senate gave final approval to a bill that rolls back electricity, natural gas, and water tariffs to the levels they stood at in November 2017 and sets limits on any future increases.... Read More

Chile: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has improved its economic gorwth forecast for Chile in its latest Economic Outlook report to 3.6% for 2018 and 2019.... Read More