LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 03 August 2018

Development: On 2 August, two of the main candidates running for the presidency in Brazil’s 7 October general election announced the names of their vice-presidential running mates, while a third presidential candidate confirmed his candidacy.... Read More

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (IBGE) has released new economic figures which show that industrial activity in the country increased by 13.1% in June compared with May.... Read More

Development: On 2 August Carlos Wagner, the CEO of local construction firm Esuco and a former president of Argentina’s construction chamber, turned himself in to the authorities.... Read More

Chile: Sindicato Escondida 1, the union representing miners from ‘Escondida’, the world’s largest copper mine (which is majority owned by Australia-based mining company BHP Billiton), has voted overwhelmingly against the latest remuneration package offered by BHP.  Of the estimated 2,300 votes cast in an internal vote by the union, 1,955 workers rejected the company’s offer, while 370 accepted the package.... Read More

Facebook, the US-based social media giant, announced on 25 July that it was de-activating 196 pages and 87 accounts in Brazil that were part of a coordinated network that was misleading users and “sowing division and spreading misinformation”.... Read More

Chile’s Interior & Public Security Minister Andrés Chadwick was last week forced to recognise an increase in “violent actions” in the impoverished southern La Araucanía region, long the site of unrest stemming from indigenous Mapuche claims to ancestral land.... Read More

The stage is set for an intense confrontation between rival cross-party coalitions next week, which will pit “greens” against “blues”.... Read More

A series of leaked audio recordings of conversations between an official in Paraguay’s supreme electoral tribunal (TSJE) and political leaders have raised serious questions about the validity of the results of the 22 April general election.... Read More

URUGUAY-CHILE | Extended FTA with Chile finally approved.... Read More