LatinNews Daily - 17 July 2018

Development: On 16 July United Nations (UN) Secretary General António Guterres condemned “the ongoing violence against civilians, including against students, in Nicaragua”.... Read More

Development: On 16 July Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra announced that the previous day he had declared a 60-day state of emergency in the Putumayo district of Loreto region located along the border with Colombia.... Read More

Venezuela: The latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) update from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that “the outlook for Venezuela, which is experiencing a dramatic collapse in [economic] activity and a humanitarian crisis, was revised down further, despite the pickup in oil prices, as oil production has declined sharply”.... Read More

Development: On 16 July Brazil’s President Michel Temer signed a decree authorising the early payment of 50% of Brazilian pensioners’ ‘13th salary’.... Read More

*Brazil’s foreign ministry (Itamaraty) has announced that the government will seek to sign new cooperation agreements in the areas of commercial aviation and technology in the upcoming heads of state meeting of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (Brics) bloc of leading emerging economies.... Read More

Dominican Republic: According to figures released by the Dominican Republic (DR)’s central bank (BCRD), in the first six months of 2018 the DR received 3.4m tourists who travelled to the country by air, up 6.1% compared with the same period of 2017.... Read More

Development: On 16 July Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto marked the 90th anniversary of the formation of the federal police (PF) in a special ceremony during which he acknowledged that his government had not achieved enough in reducing violence and insecurity in the country.... Read More

*Canada’s TransCanada, an energy company that develops and operates energy infrastructure in North America, has announced that its Topolobampo pipeline project has been brought into service in northern Mexico, providing capacity for 670m cubic feet of natural gas per day to transported to markets in the states of Chihuahua and Sinaloa.... Read More

Development: On 16 July leaders from Argentine civil-society organisations and trade unions, and national opposition deputies, signed an open letter to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in which they repudiate the recent Stand-By Agreement (SBA) that it has reached with the Argentine government.... Read More

Region: The European Commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development Phil Hogan has said that the European Union (EU) is “not satisfied” with the progress that has been made in the latest round of negotiations for a bilateral free trade agreement (FTA) between the EU and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur) regional trade bloc; and noted that no agreement will be reached in the near future.... Read More