LatinNews Daily - 26 June 2018

Development: On 25 June thousands of workers adhered to the 24-hour general strike called by the Confederación General del Trabajo (CGT) umbrella workers’ union in repudiation of the economic policies pursued by the government led by President Mauricio Macri.... Read More

Development: Coca cultivation and potential annual cocaine production in Colombia increased significantly in 2017, according to figures released on 25 June by the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP).... Read More

Venezuela: The European Union (EU) has announced the imposition of new sanctions on 11 Venezuelan government officials for undermining democracy and the rule of law in Venezuela, including Delcy Rodríguez, the current vice president and former president of the national constituent assembly (ANC).... Read More

Development: On 25 June, the Brazilian mining giant Vale do Rio Doce (Vale) announced that it had struck a framework agreement with local prosecutors - along with partner BHP Billiton - over a dam collapse in 2015 that resulted in Brazil's worst environmental disaster.... Read More

Brazil: Brazil’s state-owned oil company, Petrobras, has announced that it has reached an agreement to compensate its US shareholders with US$2.95bn.... Read More

Development: On 25 June, the national dialogue between the Nicaraguan government led by President Daniel Ortega and the Alianza Cívica por la Justicia y la Democracia opposition group resumed, with no government response to the appeal by the Catholic Episcopal Conference (CEN) for national elections to be advanced from 2021 to 2019.... Read More

Costa Rica: The government has made a formal request to the country’s labour court to declare the national strike held by trade unions on 25 June illegal.... Read More

Development: On 25 June, Emigdio López Avendaño, a candidate from the left-wing Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) party, standing for election for the local congress in Mexico’s southern-western state of Oaxaca, was assassinated along with four supporters by an unidentified shooter.... Read More

* Federal Judge José Francisco Pérez Mier from the seventh district court in Mexico’s Sinaloa state has ordered the federal agriculture ministry (Sagarpa) to ban the import of fresh potatoes from the US.... Read More

Chile: Chile’s national customs service (Aduana) has reported that trade between Chile and the rest of the world increased by 18.4% between January and May compared to the same period in 2017, reaching US$58.29bn.... Read More