LatinNews Daily - 18 July 2018

Development: On 17 July the prominent Mexican peace activist, Javier Sicilia, urged the incoming government led by President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador not to turn its pledge to pacify the country into “a show” and to expediently work to reduce violence in the country.... Read More

Development: On 17 July all five members of Ecuador’s national electoral council (CNE) were summarily dismissed.... Read More

Peru: In its July 2018 report, an umbrella grouping of Peruvian NGOs working on mining conflicts called the Observatorio de Conflictos Mineros (OCM) has revealed that various mining concessions granted by the government overlap with nature reserves and areas of natural beauty.... Read More

Development: On 17 July a judge in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro city sentenced 23 left-wing activists to seven years in prison for their role in violent protests that took place in 2013 and 2014.... Read More

* Brazil’s federal police have carried out 64 arrest warrants and 106 search warrants as part of a cargo theft investigation.... Read More

Development: On 17 July Nicaragua’s national police (PNN) and pro-government paramilitaries launched an organised attack on Masaya, the capital of the eponymous department, an opposition stronghold.... Read More

El Salvador: El Salvador’s central bank (BCR) has released figures which show that the country received US$2.68bn worth of remittances from abroad in the first six months of 2018, up 9.3% on the same period last year.... Read More

* Gerardo Ruiz Esparza, Mexico’s outgoing communications & transport minister, has met with Javier Jiménez Espriú, the replacement for his post appointed by President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador.... Read More

Development: On 17 July the presidents of Chile’s senate and chamber of deputies, Carlos Montes and Maya Fernández (both from the opposition Partido Socialista [PS]), called on the government led by President Sebastián Piñera to end the controversy surrounding the processing of government legislative initiatives and to respect the role of the legislature.... Read More

Argentina: The national statistics institute (Indec) has released its latest inflation figures, which found that the monthly inflation rate increased by 3.7% from May to June, the highest monthly increase recorded so far this year.... Read More