
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.

Argentina's country risk closed this week at 421 basis points, its lowest level in eight years, amid a strong recovery in dollar-denominated sovereign bonds driven by recent improvements in the country's credit rating. The indicator, compiled by the bank JP Morgan, reflects the premium Argentina must pay to borrow in dollars over US debt, considered risk-free.

US President Donald Trump reported more than $1.4 billion in cryptocurrency-related income during 2025, the first year of his second term, according to the annual financial disclosure filed with the Office of Government Ethics and released this week. The 927-page document shows that digital assets became the president's main source of income, ahead of his real-estate, licensing and resort businesses.

The fight against transnational organized crime emerged as one of the central themes of Mercosur's 68th summit of heads of state, held on Tuesday in the Paraguayan city of Luque, where several leaders called for building a regional security architecture with concrete goals and deadlines. The issue ran through the addresses of the bloc's presidents and those of its associated states, at a summit where Paraguay handed over the pro tempore presidency to Uruguay.

Uruguay's President Yamandú Orsi on Tuesday assumed the pro tempore presidency of Mercosur and set as a priority of his term to keep modernizing the bloc and consolidate its trade opening, following the provisional entry into force of the agreement with the European Union. We want a more modern, more dynamic Mercosur, more open to the world, but above all a Mercosur that produces concrete results for its citizens, he said as he received the rotating presidency from host Santiago Peña of Paraguay, at the 68th summit of heads of state held in Luque.

Mercosur on Tuesday announced the start of trade negotiations with Japan and reaffirmed its intention to diversify alliances toward Asia during its biannual summit in Asunción, where Paraguay handed over the bloc's pro tempore presidency to Uruguay. The meeting, however, closed without an agreement on the internal distribution of export quotas under the treaty with the European Union, and again exposed the differences between Argentina and Brazil over the bloc's direction.

Left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, who lost Colombia's presidential runoff, announced on Tuesday that he will resort to peaceful civil disobedience against the incoming government of Abelardo de la Espriella if the president-elect does not renounce his US citizenship and clarify a series of questions before taking office on August 7. The Pacto Histórico leader, from the party of outgoing President Gustavo Petro, urged his voters to join the measure, which he described as not recognizing the new president's authority.

The leader of the Topos Chile rescue group, Francisco Lermanda, alleged that his teams deployed in the Venezuelan state of La Guaira have been harassed by soldiers during search operations in the area hardest hit by the June 24 twin earthquake, which according to the official toll has left at least 1,943 dead. The Venezuelan authorities have not commented on the accusations.

Peru's National Office of Electoral Processes (ONPE) on Monday closed the count of the presidential runoff at 100% of the tally sheets and confirmed the victory of right-wing Keiko Fujimori over left-wing Roberto Sánchez, 22 days after the June 7 vote. The Fuerza Popular leader obtained 50.14% of valid votes against her rival's 49.87%, a difference of 49,641 ballots, in one of the closest elections in the country's recent history.

Paraguay's President Santiago Peña declared a national holiday for Tuesday, June 30, to celebrate the national team's qualification for the round of 16 at the 2026 World Cup, after eliminating Germany in a penalty shootout. Today a whole country is celebrating, the president wrote on the social network X, where he published the decree and congratulated the team, which he called by its nickname, the Albirroja.