LatinNews Daily - 08 November 2018

Development: On 7 November Colombia’s President Iván Duque acknowledged that “the biggest challenge” his government had faced during his first three months in office was winning approval in congress for the 2019 draft budget which would include contentious tax-reform proposals.... Read More

* Venezuela’s oil minister, Major General Manuel Quevedo, announced on 7 November that the country will shortly present its cryptocurrency, the petro, to the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) with a view to it becoming “the future of oil transactions worldwide”.... Read More

Development: On 7 November, Brazil’s President-elect Jair Bolsonaro confirmed the appointment of federal deputy Tereza Cristina da Costa Dias as his future agriculture minister.... Read More

* Brazilian meatpacking company JBS has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group to sell beef, pork, and poultry in China, in an agreement which could be worth up to US$1.5bn over three years.... Read More

Development: On 7 November Guatemala’s electoral court (TSE) registered a new political party, Movimiento para la Liberación de los Pueblos (MLP), ahead of the June 2019 general elections.... Read More

* El Salvador’s President Salvador Sánchez Cerén has revealed that China has authorised a US$150m donation over a three-year period for projects in the sectors of health, education, technology, water supply, and disaster prevention & mitigation.... Read More

Development: On 7 November Mexico’s foreign minister Luis Videgaray said that Mexico would continue with same “challenges in security, trade and migration” with regard to relations with the US, despite the 6 November US mid-term elections which saw the US Democratic party recover control of the House of Representatives.... Read More

* Mexican federal authorities have detained Ángel Humberto Chávez-Gastélum, a Mexican national designated by the US government as one of the world’s most-wanted drug traffickers, and his son in Querétaro, a municipality in the eponymous Mexican state.... Read More

Development: On 7 November, Paraguay’s interior ministry announced that it is providing additional security to the country’s attorney general, Sandra Quiñónez, after a video emerged in which she is threatened by alleged members of the Comando Vermelho (CV), Brazil’s oldest criminal gang. ... Read More

* The Uruguayan national milk institute (Inale) reported that exports of dairy products increased by 19% in January-October 2018 compared to the same period last year, generating US$559.3m in income.... Read More