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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 1st 2025 - 21:15 UTC

Latin America

  • Thursday, May 18th 2023 - 11:03 UTC

    Ecuador: President Lasso dissolves Parliament, calls for early elections

    Lasso, 67, took office on May 24, 2021, for a four-year term

    Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has dissolved his country's Parliament -which was trying to impeach him out of office- and called for early elections by resorting to a procedure outlined in the Constitution, it was reported in Quito. In the meantime, Lassso will run the country through Constitutional Court monitored decrees.

  • Thursday, May 18th 2023 - 11:00 UTC

    Children survive aircraft crash after 17 days in Colombia

    All three adults on the aircraft were found dead

    Four children who had been missing for 17 days since the single-engined Cessna 206 aircraft they were riding plunged into the ground were found alive Tuesday by Colombian authorities, it was reported Wednesday in Bogota. The survivors are 13, 9, and 4 years old, and 11 months. The three adults also aboard the aircraft perished in the accident.

  • Wednesday, May 17th 2023 - 10:48 UTC

    Lasso insists his impeachment is “unfounded”

    Lasso regretted that the impeachment trial has involved “months lost in unproductive fights and clueless investigations.”

    Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso Tuesday insisted during his appearance before the National Assembly that his impeachment for alleged embezzlement was groundless and that opposition lawmakers “have created a fictitious situation that does not solve the problems of the people or of anyone.”

  • Wednesday, May 17th 2023 - 10:18 UTC

    ECLAC calls for broader financing for Latin American countries

    Latin American countries are going through “complex” macroeconomic and financial conditions, ECLAC said

    The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) Tuesday said it considered that the current level of indebtedness in Latin America requires a transformation of the international financial architecture to offer countries other alternatives to attain “inclusive and sustainable” development.

  • Tuesday, May 16th 2023 - 10:39 UTC

    OAS wants Ecuador to offer Lasso a due process

    Lasso is going through a moment of political weakness after losing the Feb. 5 referendum

    As Ecuador's Parliament prepares to cross-examine President Guillermo Lasso Tuesday during his impeachment trial, the Organization of American States (OAS) Monday called for all guarantees of due process to be offered to the head of state.

  • Monday, May 15th 2023 - 10:45 UTC

    Petro downplays risk of coup d'état

    “What happened in Peru will not happen here,” Petro said.

    After a group of retired military officers made dubious statements, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said this weekend that a situation like the one Peru went through is unlikely to happen in his country and that he feared no coup d'état.

  • Saturday, May 13th 2023 - 10:35 UTC

    Repression in Nicaragua on the rise

    Anyone criticizing the government of Ortega can be arrested for treason

    The Nicaraguan regime of President Daniel Ortega and his Vice President wife Rosario Murillo ordered new arrests of journalists and activists for “treason,” it was reported this week. The country's judiciary also banned a group of 25 lawyers and notary publics from practicing because they were stripped of their Nicaraguan citizenship.

  • Friday, May 12th 2023 - 10:59 UTC

    Brazil asks US to help Argentine with IMF talks

    Haddad said he feared the far right could gain momentum in Argentina if the economic crisis is not solved promptly

    The Brazilian Government of President Luiz Inàcio Lula Da Silva Thursday asked the US Treasury Department to exert some pressure on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -of which the US is the largest shareholder- to help Argentina overcome the current crisis caused by the drought while still bound by commitments signed with the world entity, which are holding back the economic development of the South American country.

  • Friday, May 12th 2023 - 10:16 UTC

    Ecuador and China reach FTA

    The deal “puts Ecuador on the map of Asia,” Prado said

    Ecuador and China signed a free trade agreement (FTA) whereby the South American country will have access to a market of 1.4 billion people, it was reported in Quito on Wednesday. It was the second such pact signed under the administration of President Guillermo Lasso, following the one reached with Costa Rica.

  • Thursday, May 11th 2023 - 10:41 UTC

    Colombian president wants compulsory military service to end

    Petro also wants to increase the wages of the military personnel

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro wants his country to have more professional armed forces and thus bring the compulsory military service to an end, it was reported Wednesday in Bogota. The head of state also insisted on further funding the activity. In September last year, then Interior Minister Alfonso Prada had spoken about the government's plan to replace mandatory military service with a voluntary one. In the last five years, 460,113 young people between 18 and 24 years of age served compulsorily in the Armed Forces.