LatinNews Daily - 30 July 2018

Development: On 28 July Peru’s President Martín Vizcarra closed his first Independence Day speech by proposing to hold a national referendum on a series of changes to the judicial and political system aimed at stamping out corruption.... Read More

Venezuela: Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro has called for the use of petrol in the country to be “rationalised” in order to help alleviate the deep economic crisis afflicting the country.... Read More

Development: On 28 July thousands of people gathered in the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro for a free music concert organised by the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) party to call for the release of former president and PT presidential hopeful in the 7 October general election, Lula da Silva (2003-2011).... Read More

* Brazil’s supreme court (STF) has temporarily suspended, pending review, a lower court ruling ordering the state-owned oil firm, Petrobras, to pay R$17bn (US$4.3bn) in backdated pay to its employees.... Read More

Development: On 29 July El Salvador’s centre-right opposition Gran Alianza por la Unidad Nacional (Gana) party chose Nayib Bukele, a charismatic former San Salvador mayor ( 2015-2018), as its presidential candidate ahead of the February 2019 presidential election.... Read More

Panama: Panama’s national statistics institute (Inec) has released the latest economic figures which show that inflation reached 1.2% year-on-year in June.... Read More

Development: On 29 July Mexico’s federal attorney general’s office (PGR) announced that its recently created specialised enforced disappearance investigation unit (FEIDDF) had opened investigations into 28 suspected enforced disappearance cases implicating officers from the navy (Semar).... Read More

* Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador has announced that his incoming administration, due to take office on 1 December, will allocate an additional M$175bn (US$9.38bn) to shore up the national energy sector.... Read More

Development: On 28 July Celestino Córdova, an indigenous Mapuche shaman (machi), was transferred to Padre Las Casas commune, in Chile’s southern impoverished La Araucanía Region, to visit his Rewe (sacred altar).... Read More

Paraguay: Paraguay’s central bank (BCP) has revised upwards its GDP growth forecast for the year from 4.5% to 4.7%.... Read More

Argentina: On 19 July Sylvester Turner, mayor of the US city of Houston, Texas, and Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the mayor of Argentina’s capital Buenos Aires, signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to collaborate on best practices and policies for both cities on tourism, transportation, and other issues.... Read More