LatinNews Daily - 03 September 2018

Development: On 1 September, Brazil’s supreme electoral court (TSE) voted by six to one to bar former president, and Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT) presidential candidate, Lula da Silva (2003-2011), from running in the 7 October general election.... Read More

Development: On 1 September Martin Santiago, the United Nations (UN) Resident Coordinator for Colombia, supported President Ivan Duque’s call for a coordinated regional response to the continued exodus of migrants from Venezuela.... Read More

Venezuela: The Venezuelan government has announced adjustments to prices of eight of the 25 basic foodstuff products for which it started setting prices the previous month.... Read More

* Brazil’s national statistics institute (Ibge) has released figures for second quarter growth, which show that the country’s GDP grew by just 0.2% between April and June, compared with January-March.... Read More

Development: On 31 August Guatemala’s President Jimmy Morales announced that he would not be renewing the mandate of the United Nations (UN)-backed International Commission against Impunity in Guatemala (Cicig).... Read More

Nicaragua: Nicaragua’s President Daniel Ortega has decided to terminate the presence of a mission of the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR).... Read More

Development: On 1 September Mexican federal deputies and senators elected in July assumed their seats.... Read More

* Canada’s foreign minister Chrystia Freeland has tweeted that “we are making progress in our talks to update and modernize” the North America Free Trade Agreement (Nafta - which includes Mexico, the US, and Canada) “but we are not there yet”.... Read More

Development: On 2-3 September Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri held a series of meetings with his cabinet and leaders from the ruling centre-right Cambiemos coalition to discuss what measures his government is to take to address the current currency and market confidence crisis affecting the country... Read More

Argentina: Argentina’s agroindustry minister, Luis Miguel Etchevehere, has issued a decree temporarily suspending the national grains’ exports register ahead of the expected announcement to changes to the grains exports’ tax regime.... Read More

Argentina: On 28-29 August the head of the US Southern Command (Southcom), US Navy Admiral Kurt Tidd, co-hosted the 2018 South American Defense Conference (Southdec) in Argentina’s capital, Buenos Aires, along with Argentina’s chief commander of the armed forces, General Bari del Valle Sosa.... Read More