LatinNews Daily - 20 July 2018

Development: On 19 July the heads of Peru’s judiciary and of the national council of magistrates (CNM), respectively Duberlí Rodríguez and Orlando Velásquez, tendered their resignations.  ... Read More

Peru: Peru’s labour minister Christian Sánchez has pointed to an increase in formal employment in the last two months.... Read More

Development: On 20 July the Brazilian news site G1 reported that the presidential pre-candidate of the centrist opposition Partido da Social Democracia Brasileira (PSDB) in the 7 October general election, Geraldo Alckmin, is almost certain to receive the backing of seven influential centrist political parties.... Read More

* The Brazilian government has announced the launch of a new security operation designed to reinforce the country’s borders in nine states to prevent the illegal smuggling of drugs and firearms into Brazil.... Read More

Development: On 19 July Honduras’s main private sector lobby, Consejo Hondureño de la Empresa Privada (Cohep), called on the Partido Nacional (PN) government led by President Juan Orlando Hernández and the transport sector to reach a deal to end a strike which began the previous day.... Read More

Panama: Panama’s economy & finance minister, Edya Varela de Chinchilla, has announced that the government led by President Juan Carlos Varela (her cousin) has withdrawn a request for exemption from the 71-member unicameral national legislature, which would permit it to increase the fiscal deficit by 1% of GDP in 2018.... Read More

Development: On 19 July the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Mexico issued a statement condemning the assassination of human rights defender Abraham Hernández González.... Read More

* The US has filed a complaint before the World Trade Organisation (WTO) against Mexico, as well as Canada, China, the European Union, and Turkey, for retaliatory tariffs imposed on US goods in response to US steel and aluminium tariffs.... Read More

Development: On 19 July Celestino Córdova, an indigenous Mapuche shaman (machi), was transferred to a hospital in Temuco, the capital of Chile’s southern impoverished La Araucanía region, due to the delicate state of his health following a hunger strike.... Read More

Argentina: Moody’s Investor Service, the international credit ratings agency, has released a report in which it warns that the new Stand-By Agreement (SBA) that the Argentine government signed with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last month would negatively affect the finances of the country’s provincial governments.... Read More