LatinNews Daily - 29 June 2018

Development: On 28 June Lorenzo Córdova Vianello, the head of Mexico’s national electoral institute (INE), said that the electoral authorities are fully prepared for the 1 July general election, which will be the most observed and closely monitored in the country’s history.... Read More

Development: On 28 June the Venezuelan human rights NGO Foro Penal denounced that 803 civilians had been tried in military courts in the country since 2017.... Read More

Colombia: Colombia’s national statistics agency (Dane) has released figures which show that in May Colombia’s unemployment rate stood at 9.7%.... Read More

Development: On 28 June, a new Ibope opinion poll showed the far-right former army captain Jair Bolsonaro leading the presidential race ahead of Brazil’s 7 October general election, when former president Lula da Silva is excluded from scenarios.... Read More

*Brazil’s national electric energy agency (Aneel), the electricity sector regulator, has announced that three different foreign firms have won nine of the 20 concessions to build and operate 21 new electricity transmission lines in the country during a public tender process, while the remaining concessions were awarded to local firms.... Read More

Development: On 28 June US Vice President Mike Pence met the presidents of Central America's so-called 'Northern Triangle' (Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador) – Jimmy Morales, Juan Orlando Hernández, and Salvador Sánchez Cerén respectively – to discuss immigration.... Read More

Panama: Panama’s economy & finance minister Dulcidio De La Guardia has announced his resignation.... Read More

*Mexico’s multinational beverage company Coca-Cola Femsa, the largest Coca-Cola franchise bottler in the world by sales volume, has announced its acquisition of Uruguay’s Montevideo Refrescos SRL (Monresa) from The Coca-Cola Company (US).... Read More

Development: On 28 June Uruguay’s main umbrella trade union, Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores – Convención Nacional de Trabajadores (Pit-Cnt), staged a partial strike and march from the state-run Universidad de la República to the seat of Uruguay’s legislature from 9am to 1pm to protest the government’s 2019-2020 state budget proposal.... Read More

Chile: Chile’s finance minister, Felipe Larraín, has announced that the government led by President Sebastián Piñera will request technical assistance from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) with regard to cyber security.... Read More