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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 18th 2026 - 19:10 UTC

Politics

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 07:10 UTC

    The Falklands, FIFA and the Future of the British Overseas Territories

    Members of the Argentine team held up a banner exclaiming ‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’ (‘The Falklands are Argentine’).

    By Peter Clegg (*) <br />
    <br />
    I have been researching the British Overseas Territories (BOTs) and their geopolitical relationships for over twenty years, and I cannot remember so much focus on them as there has been in recent days. The FIFA World Cup match between England and Argentina provoked heated discussions over the future of the Falkland Islands (or Malvinas if you are Argentine). Gibraltar has received significant media coverage with the removal of the border infrastructure with Spain. The Caricom Reparations Committee has called for the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to be decolonized by the UK, and new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham will likely retain the government’s commitment to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. So, are we witnessing centrifugal forces that could fracture the BOTs’ relationship with the ‘UK family’?

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 20:52 UTC

    Burnham's first moves as UK PM: new chancellor, Miliband to foreign office and a social turn

    Burnham, 56, acknowledged the fragility of his position and said politicians “need to be better” to restore stability

    The United Kingdom's new prime minister, Labour's Andy Burnham, began shaping his government with a cabinet reshuffle and a series of socially oriented announcements, hours after taking office in place of Keir Starmer. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, who reached Downing Street without a general election after winning the Labour leadership, is Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade.

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 20:12 UTC

    Petro calls for 'general and indefinite strike' if successor repeals his reforms

    Petro warned that a repeal of the labor reform, approved in June last year, would in his view represent a setback for workers' rights

    Colombia's outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, called on Monday for a “general and indefinite strike” should the government of his successor, Abelardo de la Espriella, repeal his administration's labor reform or reverse the land reform. De la Espriella, elected in the June 21 runoff, will take office on August 7.

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 20:03 UTC

    Ortega says Nicaragua will hold no more elections

    The president announced during the commemoration of the Sandinista revolution that he will pursue legal reforms to prevent the opposition from contesting power through the ballot box

    Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said on Sunday that the country will no longer hold elections as a mechanism for the opposition to reach power. “There will be no more elections here for them to try to seize the government, to seize power,” he declared during the event marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista uprising that overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, held in Managua.

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 19:51 UTC

    Rubio says talks on Venezuela's democratic transition will begin in early August

    “I believe the first official conversations will begin the first week of August,” Rubio said at a news conference at Andrews Air Force Base

    U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that talks to begin a democratic transition in Venezuela will start in early August. Rubio, who leads Washington's relationship with Caracas, said a group representing the National Assembly elected in 2015 —the last one the United States recognizes as legitimate— met with the interim government and agreed to establish a forum for reconciliation talks and to begin the transition process.

  • Sunday, July 19th 2026 - 23:05 UTC

    Trump takes center stage at the World Cup final, presenting Spain's trophy and holding it beforehand

    The episode fits into the close relationship between Trump and Infantino, which has run through much of the tournament

    US President Donald Trump was one of the central figures off the pitch at the 2026 World Cup final, co-hosting alongside FIFA President Gianni Infantino the trophy presentation to Spain, champions after beating Argentina 1-0 in extra time at MetLife Stadium in New Jersey. Trump, who watched the match from the VIP box with his wife, Melania, also held the original trophy before kickoff, in images that circulated widely on social media.

  • Sunday, July 19th 2026 - 23:00 UTC

    ICE kills a Colombian and a Mexican in operations where they weren't the target, officials say

    Mexican national Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, 52, who had lived in Houston for three decades, had died on July 7, at a traffic stop in that city

    Two Latin American migrants were shot dead by agents of the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within a week, in operations in which, as federal authorities and lawmakers acknowledged, neither was the intended target. The deaths revived protests and calls for accountability over President Donald Trump's immigration policy.

  • Sunday, July 19th 2026 - 17:43 UTC

    Lula asks Trump to explain 25% tariffs on Brazil, speaks of a “war of truth”

    “The war I want to wage with him is a war of narrative, a war of truth. I want to show the world who is telling the truth in this tariff war between Brazil and the United States,” Lula said

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva publicly called on his US counterpart, Donald Trump, to explain the reasons behind the 25% tariffs he imposed on most Brazilian products, a measure Brasília attributes to political rather than commercial motives. The levies, announced on July 15 by the Office of the US Trade Representative, will take effect on July 22.

  • Sunday, July 19th 2026 - 01:35 UTC

    Andy Burnham is the Labour leader, third time lucky for the UK’s prime ministerinwaiting

    Andy Burnham sworn is as MP fom Makerfield

    By Eric Shaw, Honorary Research Fellow in Politics, University of Stirling. Mr. Shaw is alzo a member of the Labour Party - A brief introduction, Andy Burnham officially becomes UK Prime Minister next Monday and can be expected to announce plans for new oil and gas drilling in the North Sea, as reported by BBC.

  • Saturday, July 18th 2026 - 00:38 UTC

    Argentina-England match drove a surge in online Falklands talk, consultancy Ad Hoc says

    The day of the match saw some 660,000 mentions, nearly double the volume recorded on the most recent April 2 — the date on which Argentina commemorates those killed in the 1982 war

    Argentina's victory over England in the World Cup semifinal was not confined to the sporting arena on social media. According to an analysis by the Argentine consultancy Ad Hoc, digital conversation about the Falklands surpassed two million mentions over five days around the match, in an episode that revived the sovereignty claim following the banner displayed by the Argentine players.