LatinNews Daily - 12 November 2018

Development: On 11 November, Colombia’s President Iván Duque said that he would not be “blackmailed” by the Ejército de Liberación Nacional (ELN) insurgent guerrilla group and that his government will only resume formal peace negotiations with the ELN when the group suspends all of its criminal activity. ... Read More

* According to a new report by Peru’s foreign trade & tourism ministry (Mincetur), South Korea has become the third main market for Peru’s exports (after China and the US), with exports there totalling US$2.03bn in the first nine months of 2018, up 44.8% on the same period in 2017.... Read More

Development: On 10 November, Brazilian local media reported that Brazil’s future finance minister, Paulo Guedes, wants Joaquim Levy to run the state-owned national development bank (BNDES).... Read More

* New research by the economics, administration & accounting college (FEA) at the Universidade de São Paulo (USP) has found that one year on from the implementation of the labour reform, introduced by Brazil’s outgoing government led by President Michel Temer, it has failed to lead to an increase in the creation of formal jobs.... Read More

Development: On 9 November Reinaldo Sánchez, the president of the central committee of Honduras’s ruling Partido Nacional (PN), told reporters that the issue of a national constituent assembly cannot be the focus of a popular consultation because there are other issues of importance for the public.... Read More

* Panama’s public works ministry (MOP) has signed a US$1.4bn contract with Chinese consortium Consorcio Panamá Cuarto Puente (comprising China Communications Construction Company LTD and China Harbour Engineering Company LTD) for the design and construction of the fourth bridge over the Panama Canal.... Read More

Development: On 11 November, Marko Cortés won the internal party leadership elections held by Mexico’s right-wing opposition Partido Acción Nacional (PAN).... Read More

* Mexico’s stock exchange (BMV) rose by 0.2% on 10 November reversing the 6% fall it registered the previous day, the biggest fall in the BMV in over seven years.... Read More

Development: On 9 November Chile’s defence minister, Alberto Espina, said that he welcomed the announcement of a new military high command, which President Sebastián Piñera ratified the previous day.... Read More

* The Fundación de Investigaciones Económicas Latinoamericanas (Fiel), an Argentine economic think-tank, has estimated that the real value of the minimum state pension pay outs in the country will fall by 13% this year.... Read More

Brazil: On 6 November the president of the US Cattlemen's Association (USCA), Kenny Graner, issued a statement in response to news that since Brazil’s recent presidential election a new bilateral trade deal between the US and Brazil is now in the pipeline.... Read More