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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, June 13th 2026 - 01:26 UTC

Uruguay

  • Tuesday, May 26th 2026 - 23:13 UTC

    Uruguay signs memorandum with United Kingdom on aerospace, infrastructure, and digital innovation

    “This agreement is in line with the strategic objectives set out by President Yamandú Orsi, focused on commercial openness and mutual cooperation,” Oddone (center) said

    The Uruguayan government on Monday signed a memorandum of understanding with the United Kingdom to deepen bilateral dialogue and advance cooperation in the aerospace, infrastructure, and digital innovation sectors, in a new step in the rapprochement between the two countries initiated with the visit of Economy and Finance Minister Gabriel Oddone to London in February. The agreement, valid for at least the next four years, was signed between the Uruguayan Ministry of Economy and Finance and the British Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office.

  • Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:44 UTC

    Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office maps Marset drug route from Bolivia to European ports

    Marset was captured in March 2026 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

    The Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against Gianina García Troche, the former partner of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, that reconstructs in detail the criminal structure operating from Paraguay that for years moved cocaine from Bolivia to major European ports. The document, cited by the Uruguayan newspaper El País, lays out a three-pronged organization, nearly a thousand clandestine flights inside the Paraguayan Chaco, and a verified export volume amounting to 17,340 kilos of cocaine seized in Belgium and the Netherlands, valued at up to USD 434 million on the European market.

  • Saturday, May 23rd 2026 - 02:34 UTC

    Uruguay captures 63% of Mercosur's annual rice quota to the European Union

    Uruguay this week filled 63% of the annual zero-tariff rice quota granted by the European Union to Mercosur, in the first significant trade milestone since the provisional entry into force, on 1 May, of the association agreement between the two blocs. The total quota of 6,667 tons for the current year was covered within a few weeks of activity, according to Acting Foreign Minister Valeria Csukasi, in what amounts to one of the first operational tests of the treaty signed on 17 January in Asunción.

  • Thursday, May 21st 2026 - 20:45 UTC

    Pope Leo XIV's possible Uruguay visit remains officially unconfirmed despite local announcements

    A possible visit by the pontiff to Uruguay would be the first papal trip to the country since the historic pilgrimage of John Paul II in 1988

    The possible visit of Pope Leo XIV to Uruguay during the first half of November, announced on Wednesday by the intendant of the department of Florida, Carlos Enciso, does not yet have official confirmation from either the Uruguayan Catholic Church or the Vatican, according to ecclesiastical sources cited by the Montevideo Portal news outlet. The municipal official stated on his X social media account that, according to “Vatican sources” consulted by his administration, the pontiff is expected to visit the national shrine of the Virgin of the Thirty-Three as part of a possible trip to the South American country.

  • Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 02:31 UTC

    Uruguay: Orsi's approval falls to 29% and disapproval climbs to 46%, new survey shows

    By age groups, voters between 18 and 33 register the lowest approval levels and the highest disapproval levels, in a clear inversion of the historical pattern of the Broad Front electorate

    The administration of Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi has reached its lowest approval level since he took office as head of state in March 2025, according to the national survey by the polling firm Factum released on Monday for the second two-month period of 2026. The poll places presidential approval at 29% and disapproval at 46%, while 24% of those surveyed neither approve nor disapprove of the administration. The firm describes the dynamic as “a systematic process of falling approval and rising disapproval,” confirming the trend already identified last week by the polling firm Equipos, which had placed disapproval at 48%.

  • Sunday, May 17th 2026 - 13:48 UTC

    Brazil leads South America's military spending and Uruguay posts one of the largest relative rises, SIPRI says

    The most striking data point in the region corresponds to Uruguay, which moved to a military budget of USD 577.2 million in 2025, an increase of nearly 80% in five years.

    Brazil consolidated its position as South America's leading defense spender during 2025, with a military budget of approximately USD 23.9 billion and a 13% year-on-year increase, while Uruguay recorded one of the steepest relative rises in the region, according to the annual report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released on Saturday. The region as a whole increased its military spending by 3.4% compared with 2024, in line with a global trend of armed forces modernization, open conflicts, and growing geopolitical tensions.

  • Friday, May 15th 2026 - 13:27 UTC

    Chilean former president defends “people-centered” multilateralism in Montevideo against authoritarian projects

    Bachelet linked the regional democratic erosion to the “profound disconnect between institutions and people”

    Former Chilean President Michelle Bachelet, currently a candidate for the United Nations Secretary General, defended on Thursday in Montevideo the need for “a more representative, inclusive, and people-centered multilateralism” in the face of advancing “authoritarian projects” in the international order, during the keynote of the seminar “Geopolitics, Multilateralism, and Risks to Gender-Parity Democracy in the New International Order.” The event, organized by IDEA Internacional, is taking place at Uruguay's Legislative Palace as part of the Latin American Women in Politics Meeting, which brings together regional political leaders until Friday.

  • Friday, May 15th 2026 - 03:05 UTC

    Uruguay: Orsi's disapproval climbs to 48% as approval falls to 27% in his first year in office

    The net balance between disapproval and approval widened from -7 points in February to -21 points by the end of April, a gap more than double the one recorded at the start of the year

    Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi's administration recorded a significant deterioration in public approval as the government marked its first year in office, according to the latest survey by the polling firm Equipos released on Thursday on the Subrayado newscast. The president's disapproval rose to 48%, up from 40% in February, while approval fell from 33% to 27% over the same period. Intermediate assessments held roughly steady at around 23%, and 2% of respondents declined to answer.

  • Thursday, May 14th 2026 - 09:21 UTC

    Orsi prepares for Washington visit after months of overtures to the Trump administration

    “I am the president of Uruguay and I do not conduct foreign policy representing a political force. I do it thinking about what suits Uruguay,” the president argued

    Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi will travel to Washington “in the coming months” to meet with his US counterpart Donald Trump, in a meeting that national authorities describe as agreed and awaiting only the coordination of calendars, according to Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin's confirmation on Wednesday before the Senate International Affairs Committee. The summit would crown a series of overtures by the Broad Front government toward the Republican administration, initiated in the early weeks of Orsi's term, which began in March, and which have generated controversy within the ruling coalition itself.

  • Wednesday, May 6th 2026 - 12:14 UTC

    Uruguay's president meets Brazilian executives in São Paulo to open 'new phase' of commercial ties

    The meetings, held throughout Tuesday, gathered executives from the mining, logistics, banking, food, tourism, pulp, soybean, pharmaceutical, metallurgical and supermarket sectors

    Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi made a day trip to São Paulo on Tuesday to meet Brazilian business leaders interested in investing in Uruguay, in an agenda Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin described as an opportunity to “move to a new phase in the levels of commercial development and Brazilian investments” in the South American country. The official delegation included Lubetkin himself, Economy and Finance Minister Gabriel Oddone, Uruguay's ambassador to Brazil Rodolfo Nin Novoa, and the executive director of investment promotion agency Uruguay XXI, Mariana Ferreira.