LatinNews Daily - 04 June 2018

Development: On 1 June, Brazil's President Michel Temer appointed Ivan Monteiro as the new head of state-owned oil company Petrobras.... Read More

Development: On 1 and 2 June, Venezuelan authorities confirmed the release of a total of 79 prisoners serving time for “political violence”, among them three opposition congressional deputies.... Read More

Ecuador: Justice Paúl Serrano, who sits on a local court in Azuay province, has issued a ruling suspending the Río Blanco mining project in the province.... Read More

* Two buses were burnt and there was a series of shootouts between police and presuemd criminals in the city of Natal, the capital of Brazil's northern Rio Grande do Norte state, over the weekend (2-3 June).... Read More

Development: On 1 June, civil-society groups in Honduras condemned a ruling by the supreme court (CSJ) which questions the validity of agreements between the Organization of American States (OAS)-sponsored Mission for Support against Corruption and Impunity in Honduras (Maccih) and a new special unit against corruption and impunity (Ufecic) attached to the attorney general’s office (AG).... Read More

Cuba: Cuba’s President Miguel Díaz-Canel has convened a special session of Cuba's parliament that saw legislators approve the creation of a commission tasked with drafting a new constitution.... Read More

Development: On 2 June, the authorities in Mexico’s central Puebla state reported that a local deputy candidate in the 1 July general election and a local city councillor had been shot dead by presumed criminals.... Read More

* Moisés Kalach, the director of the international negotiations strategic consultative council of Mexico’s business coordination council (CCE), has said that Mexico will respond with “force and forcefulness” against any attempts by the US to pressure it in the renegotiation of the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.... Read More

Development: On 2 June, Chile’s feminist students’ organisation, Coordinación Femnista Universitaria (Confeu), called for protests against the gender policies of the current right-of-centre Chile Vamos coalition government led by President Sebastián Piñera.... Read More

Paraguay: The industry & trade ministry (MIC) has fined local meatpacker Frigorífico Norte SA (Frigonorte) G$3.86bn (US$700,000) for irregularly importing 2,851 tonnes (t) of beef from Brazil.... Read More

Brazil: On 22 May, Brazil’s interim foreign minister, Marcos Galvão, met with the deputy US Secretary of State John Sullivan and discussed improving bilateral security cooperation and information sharing to combat transnational crime.... Read More