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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, April 3rd 2025 - 05:03 UTC

Chile

  • Friday, March 21st 2025 - 10:55 UTC

    Boric signs Chile's pension reform into law

    Approving a reform to the AFP system “cost a lot,” Boric admitted

    Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font Thursday signed into law the new pensions reform introducing changes to the retirement mechanism in force since Augusto Pinochet Ugarte's military dictatorship (1973-1990). The new law will become effective starting in September 2025 and be fully implemented by 2035. It provides for a mixed system with contributions from workers (10%), employers (8.5%), and a new state-backed social security component, in a move to boost pensions by 14% to 35% for 2.8 million senior citizens, thus addressing the low payouts from privately-managed Pension Fund Administrators (AFPs) currently giving about half the country's retirees about US$ 350 monthly when the minimum wage stands at US$ 500.

  • Thursday, March 20th 2025 - 13:37 UTC

    Bolivia's oil supply from bad to worse

    Tumiri urged protesters to allow passage

    A lorry carrying crude oil from Chile to Bolivia for refining overturned in Lauca National Park, Arica, Chile, spilling approximately 10,000 liters of oil, thus causing significant environmental contamination. Firefighters initially contained the spill, but damage to flora and fauna is still being assessed by Chile's National Forestry Corporation (Conaf).

  • Thursday, March 20th 2025 - 09:48 UTC

    Chilean Lower House Speaker resigns her post

    Cariola was giving birth when her apartment was searched by the prosecution, which sparked controversy

    Chilean Congresswoman Karol Cariola, who is on maternity leave, turned in her resignation as Speaker of the Lower House after private chats in which she criticized President Gabriel Boric Font were leaked. Cariola is also under investigation for alleged influence peddling after she asked former Santiago Mayor and fellow Communist Irací Hassler to help a Chinese businessman “friend,” as other private conversations would have proven. She was also quoted as saying that Boric was “a shitty human being” and the current government, “the worst thing that has happened to us.”

  • Tuesday, March 11th 2025 - 14:00 UTC

    Delpiano appointed Chile's new defense minister

    Delpiano has held various public positions

    Chilean President Gabriel Boric Font appointed Adriana Delpiano to replace the resigning Maya Fernández, who left her position after being involved in the scandal regarding the Government's failed attempt to purchase the house of her grandfather, former President Salvador Allende.

  • Wednesday, March 5th 2025 - 19:52 UTC

    Tohá resigns as Interior Minister to run for Chile's presidency

    “The time has come to undertake another political struggle,” Tohá said

    Carolina Tohá Tuesday turned in her resignation as Chile's Minister of the Interior to focus on her presidential bid, she announced.

  • Thursday, February 27th 2025 - 13:20 UTC

    Deaths and robbery reported during Chile's blackout

    Troops were deployed during the power cut to enforce the curfew

    As Chile's electricity supply gradually went back to normal Wednesday, one death and an armed robbery were reported following Tuesday's 10-hour blackout resulting in a nationwide curfew.

  • Wednesday, February 26th 2025 - 10:59 UTC

    Nationwide curfew decreed in Chile amid mass blackout

    It was Chile's worst blackout since 2010

    About 98% of Chile's population was left Tuesday without electricity, prompting President Gabriel Boric Font to decree a curfew between 10 pm to 6 am Wednesday with 3,000 troops deployed nationwide. The outage began at 3.16 pm after a failure in an ISA InterChile transmission line between Vallenar and Coquimbo, causing a chain reaction that disconnected key parts of the national grid. Boric said the incident was “intolerable,” and vowed to hold the subsidiary of Colombia’s ISA accountable.

  • Monday, February 24th 2025 - 07:56 UTC

    Falklands U15 girls and boys teams dispute Friendship Cup in Punta Arenas

    Pictures of the two Falklands teams in Punta Arenas

    Punta Arenas city, southern Chile media is giving a great display to the international juvenile football competition that started on Sunday and has one of its main attractions the Falkland Islands Youth Football teams, both girls and boys.

  • Tuesday, February 11th 2025 - 09:00 UTC

    German President announces South American tour

    Steinmeier will be attending Orsi's inauguration in Montevideo

    German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be touring Uruguay, Paraguay, and Chile between February 28 and March 8, it was announced Monday in Berlin. The head of state will attend Yamandú Orsi's inauguration in Montevideo on March 1. He is also scheduled to meet with Paraguay's Santiago Peña and Chile's Gabriel Boric Font.

  • Sunday, February 9th 2025 - 10:44 UTC

    Falklands’ 17 girls’ team will play female international football in Punta Arenas

    Sophie Dalton, recently awarded the players nominated female athlete of the 2025 Junior Falkland Games

    On International Girls and Women in Sport Day, the focus is on the Girls Football Team coached by Troyd Bowles. They are about to embark on their biggest challenge yet with the first ever female international football tournament for the Falkland Islands in Punta Arenas.