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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 24th 2026 - 16:41 UTC

Stories for July 2026

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 09:58 UTC

    Mercosur backs Argentina days after Islanders' UN appeal for self-determination

    Mercosur's 68th Presidential Summit in Asunción issued a Special Declaration reiterating their support for Argentina's “legitimate rights” in the sovereignty dispute over the Falklands

    Within the span of a week, the two opposing positions in the Falklands dispute were laid out clearly in two separate arenas: South American governments' backing for Argentina's sovereignty claim, and the defense of self-determination that two representatives of the Islanders took to the United Nations. Neither pronouncement was a reply to the other, but together they illustrate the distance between two hard-to-reconcile logics.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 08:55 UTC

    In Uruguay, Kast urges harsher penalties for crime leaders and total prison isolation

    Kast held that security is the main condition for economic development and described organized crime as a “cancer” affecting all of Latin America

    Chile's President José Antonio Kast argued on Wednesday in Montevideo that the region's countries must toughen their laws to combat organized crime, with life sentences for those who lead gangs and a regime of total isolation in prisons to stop them from continuing to operate from behind bars. The president laid out his position after meeting with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, as part of an official visit to Uruguay.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 07:53 UTC

    Milei abolishes the Interior Ministry, expanding Santilli's role ahead of Congress talks

    President Javier Milei had anticipated the reform after appointing Santilli to replace Manuel Adorni, who resigned last week amid a judicial investigation into alleged illicit enrichment

    Argentina's government abolished the Interior Ministry and transferred its functions to the cabinet chief's office, headed by Diego Santilli, through an emergency decree published on Thursday in the Official Gazette. The measure places the political relationship with governors, provinces, municipalities, the City of Buenos Aires and Congress under the coordinating minister's remit, along with powers over the electoral system and political parties. With the change, the national cabinet is reduced to eight ministries.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 07:47 UTC

    Snow blankets Mar del Plata as a record polar cold wave grips Argentina

    Hundreds of residents and tourists took to the streets to photograph the beaches, squares and parks turned white, and the images quickly went viral on social media

    The seaside city of Mar del Plata, one of the main tourist destinations on Argentina's Atlantic coast, woke up covered in snow on Thursday, an unusual sight for a temperate-climate city that became the most widely shared image of the intense polar cold wave sweeping the country. Thermometers read around 1 degree below zero, with a wind-chill close to -3 °C, and snow and sleet were recorded from the early hours in various parts of the General Pueyrredón district, with heavier accumulation in the Sierra de los Padres area.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 22:12 UTC

    Argentine ex-official Insaurralde seeks to bar the cash-stacks video from his graft case

    Last week, federal prosecutor Sergio Mola had requested the detention of Insaurralde and Cirio, arguing there was a risk they might alter or hide evidence

    The former cabinet chief of Buenos Aires province and ex-mayor of Lomas de Zamora, Martín Insaurralde, asked the courts not to use as evidence the video in which his ex-wife, television host Jesica Cirio, appears alongside stacks of dollars in the closet of the house they shared, as part of a case for alleged illicit enrichment and money laundering. The motion, filed before federal judge Luis Armella, mirrors the one Cirio herself had made days earlier; she also faces a pending order to give testimony.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 15:32 UTC

    A multinational rescue frees Hernán, trapped eight days under Venezuela's quake rubble

    Gil, who worked as a guard in the underground parking garage of a shopping mall, survived by sheltering under the desk of his booth when the building collapsed

    A 43-year-old Venezuelan security guard, Hernán Gil, was rescued alive on Thursday after eight days trapped under the rubble of a building that collapsed in Catia La Mar, in La Guaira state, during the twin earthquake that struck the country on June 24. The Costa Rican Red Cross, which took part in the operation, confirmed the rescue, considered one of the most complex and prolonged of the disaster, which has left at least 2,295 dead and more than 11,000 injured, according to the official toll.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 09:55 UTC

    A Spanish investigation tracks how Asia's squid fleet is upending the South Atlantic market

    Spain controls much of the world's Loligo squid catch, mainly through the roughly 16 licences granted by the Falklands to fish in their waters, with catches close to 50,000 tons a year

    An international investigation published by the Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, with an extensive interactive report, describes how the expansion of Asian fishing fleets in international waters —mainly Chinese— has transformed the global market for frozen squid, with a direct impact on the European fleet and consequences for fishing in the South Atlantic, one of the main sources of income for the Falklands.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 09:11 UTC

    Uruguay and Chile agree to coordinate against organized crime after an Orsi-Kast summit

    Kast said that both countries' security “has been undermined by transnational organized crime”

    The presidents of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, and Chile, José Antonio Kast, agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation against transnational organized crime, following a meeting held on Wednesday at the Suárez y Reyes presidential residence in Montevideo. In a joint statement, the leaders announced understandings on security, fisheries, Antarctica, the bi-oceanic corridor and economic integration, as part of Kast's official visit to Uruguay.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 08:54 UTC

    Milei focuses on his domestic agenda after the Adorni reshuffle, forgoing a US trip

    Milei had already declined to attend the Mercosur summit in Asunción —where he was represented by Quirno— in order to remain in Buenos Aires and lead the swearing-in of his new cabinet chief

    Argentine President Javier Milei will prioritize his domestic agenda in the coming days and will not travel to the United States for that country's Independence Day celebrations on July 4, official sources confirmed. The decision comes amid a reshaping of his cabinet following the departure of his cabinet chief, Manuel Adorni, and marks the second time in a matter of days that the president has set aside an international commitment to focus on domestic matters.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 08:51 UTC

    Venezuela's quake toll passes 2,295 a week on, with tens of thousands still unaccounted for

    Search efforts continued in the coastal state of La Guaira, the hardest hit, where most of the victims are concentrated

    A week after the twin earthquake that struck north-central Venezuela, the official toll rose to at least 2,295 dead and 11,267 injured, according to National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez, who has been the main voice for the figures since the disaster. The United Nations humanitarian coordinator in the country, Gianluca Rampolla, warned that the number “will keep growing” as rescue and debris-removal work advances.