LatinNews Daily - 07 August 2018

Development: On 6 August Jordán Rodas, the head of Guatemala’s human rights ombudsman’s office, announced he would open an investigation into possible acts of spying on the part of government.... Read More

Development: On 6 August Venezuela’s de facto attorney general Tarek William Saab announced the arrest of “all of the material authors” of the alleged drone assassination attempt on President Nicolás Maduro during a military parade two days earlier.... Read More

Colombia: In his last act as president, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos, who is due to leave office on 7 August, oversaw the signing of the documents opening the public tender process for the contract to build the first line of the Bogotá city metro.... Read More

Development: On 6 August the full list of 13 presidential candidates running in Brazil’s 7 October general election, and the electoral alliances that support them, were defined, allowing for projections to be made on how much daily free TV and radio electoral propaganda each of them will have ahead of the first-round vote.... Read More

* Brazil’s national association of automobile manufacturers (Anfavea) has reported that in the first seven months of the year national vehicle production stood at 1.68m units, a 13% increase compared to same period last year.... Read More

Panama: Panama’s economy & finance ministry (MEF) has revealed that it expects Panama’s GDP to grow 5.6% in 2018 and 5.9% in 2019.... Read More

Development: On 6 August Mexico’s President-elect Andrés Manuel López Obrador touched down in Ciudad Juárez, the border city in the northern state of Chihuahua, ahead of the first of a series of nationwide consultative forums being organised by his Movimiento Regeneración Nacional (Morena) party over public security strategy.... Read More

* Mexico’s automobile industry association (Amia) has reported that auto sector production fell by 3.7% in July to 291,577 units.... Read More

Development: On 6 August José María Ibáñez, a national deputy from Paraguay’s ruling Asociación Nacional Republicana-Partido Colorado (ANR-PC) party, announced that he was abandoning his congressional seat to which he was re-elected in the 22 April general election.... Read More

Chile: Australia-based mining company BHP Billiton, which majority owns ‘Escondida’, the world’s largest copper mine, has requested five days of government-mediated talks as part of efforts to end a pay dispute with Sindicato Escondida 1, the union representing Escondida miners.... Read More