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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, June 14th 2026 - 18:37 UTC

Latin America

  • 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.

  • Monday, May 11th 2026 - 14:42 UTC

    Delcy Rodríguez defends Essequibo claim at The Hague under temporary EU sanctions waiver

    For Venezuela, the Essequibo appears on its official maps as a “zone of reclamation.” For Guyana, the Venezuelan claim represents an existential threat to its territorial integrity

    Venezuela's acting President Delcy Rodríguez arrived in the Netherlands on Sunday to defend her country's claim to the Essequibo, the border region disputed with Guyana, before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The trip, authorized under a specific waiver to the European Union sanctions imposed on her, marks her first major international journey outside the Caribbean since the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by US forces in January, which paved the way for her to assume office as interim leader.

  • Monday, May 11th 2026 - 03:51 UTC

    Up to 8,000 Latin Americans fight in Ukraine for Russia, many deceived, international report finds

    In Peru, lawyers representing affected families report at least 13 dead, 73 missing, and more than 600 nationals recruited

    An international report presented in Kyiv in late April estimates that between 1,000 and 8,000 Latin Americans are serving in the Russian army in its war against Ukraine, in what its authors describe as a global human-trafficking network run to replenish front-line casualties. The document, titled “Fighters, Mercenaries or Victims of Human Trafficking?”, was produced by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds, and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights.

  • Friday, May 8th 2026 - 02:14 UTC

    United States imposes new sanctions on Cuban military conglomerate GAESA amid escalating pressure

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Thursday a new package of sanctions against the Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), the conglomerate linked to the Cuban Armed Forces that controls approximately 40% of the island's economy, in a fresh escalation of the economic pressure deployed by the Trump administration against the Havana regime. The measure is part of the implementation of Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, which authorizes sanctions against those responsible for political repression and threats to US national security.