LatinNews Daily - 29 April 2019

On 28 April Colombia’s political opposition called for the resignation of Defence Minister Guillermo Botero over the killing by the army of Dimar Torres, a demobilised member of the Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (Farc) former guerrilla group.... Read More

* Ecuador’s ministry of energy and non-renewable natural resources has shared a press release announcing plans to appeal a court ruling for the protection the land of the Waorani people in Pastaza province.... Read More

On 26 April, Brazil’s leftist former president Lula da Silva (2003-2011) gave an interview from prison in Curitiba, Paraná state, where he is serving a sentence for corruption, in which he described the country’s current right-wing government as a “band of lunatics”.... Read More

* The executive board of Brazil’s state-owned oil company Petrobras has agreed on a new programme of divestments, with focus on the refinery and distribution branches of the company.... Read More

On 28 April two police (PNC) agents and three soldiers were murdered in different parts of El Salvador.... Read More

* Nicaragua’s central bank (BCN) has published new figures which show that remittances reached US$137.3m in March 2019, up 11.1% on the same month in 2018.... Read More

On 28 April the chief of the municipal police force in Acatzingo in the central Mexican state of Puebla was shot dead by armed assailants.... Read More

*Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has said that he will not rely on foreign investments for the Istmo de Tehuantepec development project, which includes plans to expand the ports of Salina Cruz in Oaxaca state, and Coatzacoalcos in Veracruz state, and to reconstruct a trainline for both commercial and personal transit.... Read More

On 28 April, a Paraguayan judge charged retired army general Ramón Benítez with the crimes of criminal association, facilitating the flow of contraband, and bribery, and ordered his preventative arrest.... Read More

* Uruguay’s foreign minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa has met Feng Zhenglin, the head of China’s civil aviation authority, and announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) regarding civil aviation.... Read More

Brazil: On 23 April several Brazilian indigenous rights and environmental groups staged a protest against the policies of Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro in front of the Brazilian Mission to the United Nations (UN) in New York City.... Read More