LatinNews Daily - 25 September 2018

Development: On 24 September the Central de Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA) umbrella worker’s union launched a 36-hour strike in Argentina in repudiation of the government’s economic policies.... Read More

Development: On 24 September Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro accused the governments of Chile, Colombia, and Mexico of complicity in an alleged assassination attempt on his life by drones last month, while his Colombian peer Iván Duque called for the international community to impose a “diplomatic blockade” to bring down the “dictatorship”.... Read More

* Blockades are ongoing in Peru’s Cusco region staged by coca producers (cocaleros) led by organisations such as the Federación Provincial de Campesinos de La Convención, Yanatile y Lares (Fepcacyl).... Read More

Development: On 24 September, Manuela d’Ávila of the Partido Comunista do Brasil (PCdoB), the vice-presidential runing mate of the Partido dos Trabalhadores’ (PT) presidential candidate Fernando Haddad in Brazil’s 7 October presidential elections, requested federal protection in the run-up to the election after receiving threats online.... Read More

* Brazilian federal judge Rolando Valcir Spanholo has released the patent for sofosbuvir, a drug that effectively cures hepatitis C.... Read More

Development: On 24 September a labour tribunal in Costa Rica’s capital San José ruled that the strike by housing ministry employees was illegal.... Read More

* Panama’s supreme court (CSJ) has ruled in favour of an appeal presented ten years ago by a local environmental NGO, Centro de Incidencia Ambiental (Ciam), against a contract signed in February 1997 by the state with mining company Minera Petaquilla, (owned by Canada’s Petaquilla Minerals at the time) for the extraction of gold and copper in Donoso district, Colón province.... Read More

Development: On 24 September, Mexico’s ministry of foreign affairs (SRE) summoned Venezuela’s ambassador to Mexico to reiterate its rejection of Venezuela’s accusations of Mexican diplomats’ involvement in the suspected assassination attempt against Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro last month.... Read More

* A new report commissioned by Mexico’s energy regulatory commission (CRE), the federal energy sector regulator, has identified that eight different organised criminal groups are dedicated to stealing hydrocarbon fuels from Mexico’s state-owned oil firm, Pemex.... Read More

* President Sebastián Piñera has announced a new US$8bn public investment plan for Chile’s southern impoverished La Araucanía Region with a further US$16bn to come from the private sector.... Read More