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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, June 13th 2025 - 09:23 UTC

Latin America

  • Saturday, August 12th 2023 - 10:41 UTC

    Chile's Social Development Minister resigns amid scandal

    Jackson is known to be a close friend of President Boric's

    Giorgio Jackson, of President Gabriel Boric Fnt's Democratic Revolution (RD) party, Friday turned in his resignation as Social Development Minister following his involvement in a corruption scandal splashing several cabinet members and even the head of state, it was reported in Santiago.

  • Friday, August 11th 2023 - 12:36 UTC

    FBI's help requested in Ecuadorian candidate's murder probe

    All six suspects arrested in connection with Villavicencio's death plus the one killed during a police raid were Colombian nationals

    Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso Thursday asked the United States Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) to support his country in the investigation of Wednesday's murder of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio, it was reported in Quito. An FBI team is due in Ecuador shortly, Lasso said.

  • Friday, August 11th 2023 - 11:17 UTC

    Major haul of cocaine in Rotterdam: eight tons in a shipment of Ecuadorean bananas

    The cocaine was hidden in a container alongside bananas on a ship that had arrived from Ecuador. Some 8,000 packets of the drug were discovered in the containers.

    Ecuador again is headlines. Netherlands authorities have seized eight tons of cocaine in the port of Rotterdam, prosecutors announced on Thursday. The drug is valued at an estimated US$660 million and represents the biggest haul ever recorded at the port. The last biggest was a 4,500-kilogram haul made in 2020.

  • Friday, August 11th 2023 - 09:12 UTC

    Ecuador: Six Colombians accused of killing presidential candidate; State of emergency and elections ratified

    Interior Minister Juan Zapata described the killing as a “political crime of a terrorist nature” aimed at sabotaging the August 20 presidential election

    Six people have been arrested in Ecuador late on Thursday in connection with the killing of presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio following a political rally a day earlier.

  • Thursday, August 10th 2023 - 11:25 UTC

    Hitmen assassinate Presidential candidate in Ecuador

    A former journalist and assemblyman, the 59-year-old Villavicencio was said to be very close to President Lasso

    Presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio died after being attacked by hitmen on his way out of a campaign rally in downtown Quito ahead of the upcoming Aug. 20 elections, Interior Minister Juan Zapata confirmed in the Ecuadorian capital. Other people were wounded, it was reported.

  • Wednesday, August 9th 2023 - 10:34 UTC

    Colombian President wants to create “Amazon NATO” to defend jungle “with weapons”

    “It is no longer enough” to reach the goal of “zero deforestation,” Petro insisted

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro Urrego Tuesday suggested during his speech at the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) Summit in the Brazilian city of Belém that an international environmental court should be created to prosecute crimes in the area, in addition to an “Amazon NATO” to defend the region “with weapons”.

  • Wednesday, August 9th 2023 - 10:31 UTC

    Eight Amazon countries sign Belem Declaration

    The document expressed the urgent need to avoid the so-called “point of no return” in the Amazon

    Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela Tuesday signed the Belém Declaration on the opening day of the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) Summit in the Brazilian State of Pará, Agencia Brasil reported.

  • Tuesday, August 8th 2023 - 10:19 UTC

    Regional leaders convening in Brazil to prevent rainforest destruction

    “We have two presidents who arrive with strong commitments: Colombia's president talking about zero oil, and Lula talking about zero deforestation,” Silva added

    Leaders from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Peru, Suriname, and Venezuela, which make up the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organization (ACTO) are to convene Tuesday and Wednesday in Belém, the capital of the Brazilian state of Pará to discuss a new development model to put an end to the cycle of destruction that is devastating the largest tropical forest on the planet.

  • Tuesday, August 8th 2023 - 10:10 UTC

    Peru: Boluarte feared fleeing during Amazon Summit

    It is Boluarte's first trip abroad as President

    Peruvian Congresswoman Margot Palacios said she feared President Dina Boluarte might try to flee the country during her participation in the Amazon summit in the Brazilian city of Belém, it was reported in Lima on Monday. Boluarte left the country for the first time as President to attend the event.

  • Monday, August 7th 2023 - 10:33 UTC

    YPFB finds new gas reservoir

    “These results will allow us to classify it as the discoverer of a new hydrocarbon field with estimated resources of 0.7 trillion cubic feet of gas and 52 million barrels of liquids,” Arce said

    Bolivian authorities have reported that the state-run oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB) had discovered a new gas field in the Okinawa area after recent studies in the Remanso-X1 (RMS-X1) well. The new reservoir will generate approximately US$ 5 billion in gas, it was explained. It will also contribute to savings in fuel purchases of US$1 billion, according to YPFB.