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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 4th 2026 - 05:31 UTC

Latin America

  • Tuesday, May 19th 2026 - 01:42 UTC

    Chilean executive detained in Brazil for racist and homophobic insults to Latam flight attendant

    The executive refers to the cabin crew member as “mono” (monkey) and makes gestures imitating a primate

    Chilean executive Germán Naranjo Maldini has been held since Friday 15 May at the Guarulhos prison on the outskirts of São Paulo, charged with racial slur after directing racist and homophobic insults at a flight attendant of the airline Latam during a flight between São Paulo and Frankfurt on 10 May. The Chilean fishing company Landes, where he served as commercial manager, formally and preventively removed the executive from his position following the circulation over the weekend of a video showing the verbal attacks.

  • Monday, May 18th 2026 - 18:31 UTC

    Bolivia: Ten thousand Evo Morales supporters descend on La Paz as government warns of armed groups

    The march, described by its organizers as a “pro-Evo and coca-grower” mobilization, is made up of peasant, indigenous, and labor sectors

    The Bolivian government on Monday denounced the presence of “armed groups” in the march of peasant farmers and supporters of former president Evo Morales that descended on the city of La Paz, the seat of the executive and legislative branches, after a six-day walk from the highlands, demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. Deputy Interior Minister Hernán Paredes estimated at “somewhat more than ten thousand people” the column of protesters that entered the capital from the neighboring city of El Alto, in what authorities described as an attempt by the former leader to destabilize the executive six months into his term.

  • Sunday, May 17th 2026 - 13:48 UTC

    Brazil leads South America's military spending and Uruguay posts one of the largest relative rises, SIPRI says

    The most striking data point in the region corresponds to Uruguay, which moved to a military budget of USD 577.2 million in 2025, an increase of nearly 80% in five years.

    Brazil consolidated its position as South America's leading defense spender during 2025, with a military budget of approximately USD 23.9 billion and a 13% year-on-year increase, while Uruguay recorded one of the steepest relative rises in the region, according to the annual report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released on Saturday. The region as a whole increased its military spending by 3.4% compared with 2024, in line with a global trend of armed forces modernization, open conflicts, and growing geopolitical tensions.

  • Saturday, May 16th 2026 - 04:16 UTC

    Paz thanks Milei for sending Hercules aircraft to bring food to blockaded Bolivian cities

    “My deepest gratitude to President Milei for the invaluable support extended to Bolivia with the dispatch of the Hercules aircraft for humanitarian assistance tasks,” Paz wrote

    Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Friday thanked his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, for sending two C-130 Hercules military aircraft to reinforce the airlift aimed at supplying food and basic goods to the cities of La Paz and El Alto, affected by ten consecutive days of road blockades by peasant unions from the highlands. The regional gesture comes during one of the most critical weeks of the centrist leader's six-month tenure, against a backdrop of shortages and growing political tension with sectors aligned with former president Evo Morales.

  • Saturday, May 16th 2026 - 03:45 UTC

    Trump claims he will engineer a “turnaround” in Cuba and pull it away from China and Russia

    “I think we are going to turn it around,” Trump replied when asked about the possibility of Cuba leaning toward the United States

    US President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration will bring the Cuban government to align with Washington and pull away from the orbit of China and Russia, in his first public comments on the island since the unprecedented visit by CIA Director John Ratcliffe to Havana on Thursday. The remarks, delivered during an interview with journalist Bret Baier on Fox News, come in a week marked by contradictory US gestures toward the Cuban regime: the humanitarian offer of USD 100 million accepted by Havana, the judicial pressure on former president Raúl Castro, and the opening of a direct channel between US and Cuban intelligence services.

  • Friday, May 15th 2026 - 05:08 UTC

    Washington considers prosecuting Raúl Castro over 1996 shootdown of civilian planes

    The incident that would underpin the indictment took place on 24 February 1996

    The US government is weighing a federal indictment against former Cuban president Raúl Castro over the 1996 downing of two civilian aircraft operated by the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue, the CBS network and the Reuters news agency reported on Thursday, citing official sources. The potential charges, which still require grand jury approval, emerge on a day marked by escalating tensions between Washington and Havana and by a confidential visit to the Cuban capital by CIA Director John Ratcliffe.

  • Friday, May 15th 2026 - 02:58 UTC

    Cuba accepts USD 100 million in US humanitarian aid amid energy collapse

    The US energy blockade has aggravated the structural crisis the island has been dragging since the capture of Nicolás Maduro and the resulting interruption of the Venezuelan supply

    The Cuban government on Thursday accepted the United States' offer of USD 100 million in humanitarian aid for food, fuel, and medicines, in a significant political shift after weeks of public rejection and hours after authorities on the island acknowledged the complete exhaustion of their fuel reserves. The aid will be channeled through the Catholic Church, according to the official statement issued by President Miguel Díaz-Canel, who only the day before had described the US offer as “inconsequential and paradoxical.”

  • Wednesday, May 13th 2026 - 12:05 UTC

    Bolivian prosecutors confirm they will seek 20 years in prison for Evo Morales on trafficking charges

    Morales's followers plan to join the demonstrations called by the Bolivian Workers' Central toward La Paz

    Bolivia's Public Prosecutor's Office on Tuesday confirmed it will maintain its request for a 20-year prison sentence against former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) for aggravated human trafficking, in proceedings that are moving forward despite the former leader's absence and a fresh arrest warrant issued against him after his failure to appear at Monday's hearing. Prosecutors argue that Morales had a relationship during his second term with a 15-year-old girl, with whom he allegedly fathered a daughter, and that the minor's parents are said to have consented to the relationship in exchange for political favors and economic improvements.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 03:14 UTC

    Peru's runoff to pit Fujimori's daughter against Castillo's political heir

    An Ipsos poll released in late April places both candidates in a technical tie at 38%, with 17% reporting they would cast blank or spoiled ballots

    Peru will hold a presidential runoff on 7 June pitting Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), against Roberto Sánchez, a congressman and self-proclaimed political heir of Pedro Castillo, the rural schoolteacher who reached the presidency in 2021 and is now serving an eleven-year, five-month sentence for the failed self-coup he attempted on 7 December 2022.

  • Monday, May 11th 2026 - 23:18 UTC

    Evo Morales fails to appear at minor-trafficking trial; court orders his arrest

    The former president has been in hiding since 2024 in Chapare, the tropical coca-growing region where he forged his union and political career

    The First Criminal Sentencing Court of Tarija, in southern Bolivia, on Monday declared former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) in contempt and ratified the arrest and travel-ban orders against him after he failed to attend the opening of his oral trial for alleged aggravated human trafficking. The same measure was applied to Idelsa Pozo Saavedra, mother of the alleged victim. Judge Carlos Oblitas suspended the proceedings without a new date, pending the arrest or voluntary appearance of the defendants.