LatinNews Daily - 02 August 2018

Development: On 1 August Gustavo Bell, the Colombian government’s chief negotiator in the peace negotiations with the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) leftist guerrillas, announced the conclusion of the talks’ sixth negotiation round, in which he said that progress had been made but that an agreement extending the current bilateral ceasefire could not be reached.... Read More

Peru: Peru’s council of ministers has announced that it has approved four legislative decrees aimed at combating tax evasion and avoidance, as well as money laundering.... Read More

Development: In a decision made public on 1 August, the president of Brazil’s supreme electoral tribunal (TSE), Luiz Fux, said that in his opinion it is “evident” the former president Lula da Silva (2003-2011) from the leftist Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) party is ineligible to run for president in the 7 October general election.... Read More

*The Tribunal de Contas da União (TCU), Brazil’s financial ombudsman, has banned local construction firm OAS from bidding for any public contracts in Brazil for the next five years.... Read More

Development: On 1 August Costa Rica’s 22-member supreme court (CSJ) chose Fernando Cruz as its new president for four years.... Read More

Dominican Republic: The Dominican Republic’s central bank has released new figures which show that the monthly indicator of economic activity (Imae) for June was up 7.3% year-on-year, bringing accumulated growth in the first half of 2018 to 6.7%.... Read More

Development: On 1 August Gustavo de Hoyos, the president of the Confederación Patronal de la República Mexicana (Coparmex) employers’ association, called on President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador to reconsider his appointments for the future heads of the state-owned electricity firm, Comisión Federal de Electricidad (CFE), and the state-run oil company, Pemex.... Read More

*Mexico’s central bank (Banxico) has released the result of its latest poll of local economists, which found that the consensus view is that there will be lower economic growth and higher inflation this year than previously thought, as result of the continued uncertainty surrounding the future of the North American Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).... Read More

Development: On 1 August human rights groups staged protests in Chile’s capital, Santiago, against the supreme court (CSJ)’s decision to grant parole to seven people serving prison sentences for crimes against humanity committed under the dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet (1977-1990).... Read More

Argentina: Argentina’s federal tax authority (Afip) has reported that it collected Ar$293.9bn (US$10.68m) in tax in July 2018 – up 23.8% year-on-year.... Read More