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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 28th 2026 - 13:30 UTC

Chile

  • Tuesday, June 30th 2026 - 22:08 UTC

    Chilean rescuers allege military harassment in Venezuela's quake zone

    According to Lermanda's account to Venezuelan and Chilean media, soldiers have repeatedly demanded identity documents from his 46 rescuers, on suspicion of espionage

    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.

  • Tuesday, June 30th 2026 - 08:32 UTC

    A regional shift to the right frames the wave of congratulations to Fujimori

    Argentine President Javier Milei was among the most emphatic. “I congratulate Keiko Fujimori on her historic victory in Peru. The Peruvian people join Colombia and have sent a clear message”

    The confirmation of right-wing Keiko Fujimori's victory in Peru's presidential runoff drew a wave of congratulations from leaders across the region, who framed the result within the shift to the right underway in several Latin American countries. With Fujimori's arrival in power, the right will add a new government, alongside those of Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, Paraguay and El Salvador, and the recent victory of Abelardo de la Espriella in Colombia.

  • Monday, June 15th 2026 - 21:35 UTC

    Chile's Kast government reaffirms Valparaíso's bid to host the High Seas Treaty secretariat

    Known as the “Pearl of the Pacific,” Valparaíso lies 110 kilometers northwest of Santiago and was the most important commercial port in the South Pacific during the 19th century

    Chile's government on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to Valparaíso's candidacy to host the Executive Secretariat of the High Seas Treaty, a key instrument of ocean governance, and held that the port city has “relevant strengths” to secure it. The Foreign Ministry said the bid responds to the importance that Chilean foreign policy places on protecting the ocean and to the country's “maritime vocation.”

  • Tuesday, June 9th 2026 - 19:23 UTC

    Santiago seeks to build a cultural avenue like those in Buenos Aires or Madrid

    “The goal is to propose a very broad range of activities and to ease public access,” explained the executive director of the Centro Arte Alameda, Roser Fort

    More than fifty institutions and cultural centers located around Santiago's main avenue agreed on Tuesday to expand their cooperation and coordinate their programming to turn that historic thoroughfare into a cultural hub, similar to those in other capitals such as Buenos Aires or Madrid. Museums, theaters, libraries, cinemas and universities created the Red Alameda Cultural, a platform on which they will publish all their activities to enliven the corridor and offer citizens a complete cultural experience.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 23:06 UTC

    Chile's far-right proposes a 'Museum of Truth' on the Allende era to counter coup memory

    The coup led by Pinochet ousted Allende and began a 17-year dictatorship (1973-1990) in which thousands of people were killed, disappeared or tortured.

    Seven of the eight deputies of the National Libertarian Party (PNL), the far-right group founded by Johannes Kaiser, presented a resolution in Chile's Congress asking President José Antonio Kast to create a “Museum of Truth” devoted to what they describe as “the abuse, hunger and humiliation” of the Popular Unity government, led by Salvador Allende from 1970 until his overthrow on September 11, 1973.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 22:59 UTC

    President Kast denounces 3.6%-of-GDP structural fiscal deficit inherited from Boric administration

    “We inherited a country with the accounts in disarray, and our obligation is not to complain, but to order them,” Kast said in the legislative chamber

    Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Monday delivered his first annual Cuenta Pública address before the National Congress, based in Valparaíso, in a speech of two hours and twenty-five minutes centred on the country's fiscal situation and on criticisms of the outgoing administration of leftist Gabriel Boric (2022-2026). The president denounced that the incoming executive received a preliminary structural fiscal deficit of 3.6% of Gross Domestic Product, more than double the 1.6% committed to by the previous government, and characterized the situation as an “economic emergency” requiring urgent measures.

  • Sunday, May 31st 2026 - 21:19 UTC

    Kast defends first 81 days in office ahead of first “Cuenta Pública” before Chilean Congress

    “These 81 days have felt to many like 365, because many things happen, but I want to underline that we are moving forward through facts because this is a hands-on government,” Kast said

    Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Sunday defended the first 81 days of his administration and reaffirmed his main campaign promises on security and migration, on the eve of his first “Cuenta Pública” address to the National Congress, scheduled for Monday in Valparaíso. The far-right leader took office on 11 March and faces on Monday his annual accountability address amid a sustained decline in approval ratings and on the eve of the first legislative test for his government, the Senate vote on the so-called tax megareform.

  • Sunday, May 31st 2026 - 21:00 UTC

    US citizen taken during Pinochet dictatorship reunited with Chilean mother after 35 years

    Adler, 36, was given up for illegal adoption in 1990 to a US couple who raised him in an affluent suburb of Chicago

    US citizen Kyle Adler, taken as a nine-month-old baby during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, was reunited this year with his biological mother, Chilean national Ana María Navarrete, thirty-five years after the forced separation. The reunion, which took place on Valentine's Day at Santiago airport and was documented by the Associated Press news agency, illustrates the scale of a network of fraudulent adoptions that during the Chilean military regime (1973-1990) took more than twenty thousand children from poor and indigenous families, according to official estimates.

  • Friday, May 29th 2026 - 06:42 UTC

    Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru sign joint agreement to combat transnational crime

    “This is not just a political gesture, it is not a diplomatic milestone,” Kast said at the opening, arguing that “there can be a before and an after here”

    The governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru on Thursday signed in Santiago a joint cooperation agreement against transnational organized crime, in a meeting convened by the Chilean government of President José Antonio Kast and attended by five foreign ministers, four security ministers, and one interior minister. The so-called Santiago Regional Compact articulates five areas of cooperation and will be presented before the 56th General Assembly of the Organization of American States to extend the initiative to the rest of the continent.

  • Thursday, May 28th 2026 - 07:26 UTC

    UK’s Royal College of Defense visited Brazil, Argentina and Chile

    The delegation at the Chilean Antarctic Institute

    A delegation from the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) visited Chile the week of 18 May as part of its annual tour of Latin America, aimed at strengthening strategic analysis and global understanding of challenges related to security, defense and international cooperation.