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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, November 11th 2025 - 01:51 UTC

Politics

  • Friday, June 28th 2024 - 10:56 UTC

    Uruguay’s internal elections: Key players and possible outcomes

    Delgado, Orsi and Ojeda lead the polls in Uruguay's three main parties.

    As the internal elections for Uruguay’s major political parties approach next Sunday, the consulting firm Opción Consultores has released a public opinion report evaluating the potential impact of voter turnout on the outcomes for the Frente Amplio (FA), Partido Nacional (PN), and Partido Colorado (PC). The report, released this Thursday, provides a detailed analysis of how varying levels of voter participation could influence the percentage of votes each pre-candidate might receive.

  • Friday, June 28th 2024 - 09:39 UTC

    Milei's party gets Bases Law approved

    The bill is now ready to be signed into law

    Argentina's Lower House passed after 1.30 am Friday by 147 votes to 107 and 2 abstentions the so-called Bases Law bill granting President Javier Milei the tools he claims to need to rescue his country from her plight. The initiative had already been greenlighted but came back from the Senate with a series of modifications that needed further approval. Now the bill is ready to be signed into law by the executive, marking the Libertarian administration's first parliamentarian achievement after over six months.

  • Friday, June 28th 2024 - 09:13 UTC

    US presidential debate: Biden's performance leaves Democrats questioning his fitness for a second term

    The bitter debate did not even start with the customary handshake

    A somewhat erratic Joseph Biden left the Democratic camp wondering whether their 81-year-old candidate would be fit for a full second term in office as President of the United States. After Thursday evening's debate with the Republican nominee and former head of state Donald Trump, aged 78, many wondered if it was not too late to seek a replacement. In truth, neither candidate has yet been officially nominated, although both have secured the required number of delegates for the Republican and Democratic National Conventions beginning July 15 and Aug. 19 respectively.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 22:37 UTC

    OAS unanimously condemns military revolt in Bolivia

    Violent interruptions to democracies need to be “banished from our countries,” the Bolivian delegate stressed

    The Organization of American States' General Assembly in session at Asunción, Paraguay, Thursday passed a “strong condemnation” of the attempted coup d'état in Bolivia the day before. The continental body dubbed Wednesday's events in La Paz a “threat to the constitutional regime.” It was also “a flagrant insubordination to the orders publicly expressed by the constitutional president Luis Arce Catacora,” the delegates concurred unanimously.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 22:00 UTC

    Panama Canal easing crossing conditions beginning July 11

    Incoming new Panama president Jose Raúl Mulino put water levels at the country’s canal as one of his most important items on his agenda

    The Panama Canal Authority (ACP) has announced an increase in draft and daily transits, with the authorized draft raised by another 30 cm on Wednesday to 14.3 m, and will increase to 14.63 m on July 11.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 20:39 UTC

    Falklands MLAs in US and Canada, including “moving the dial at C24” on self determination

    Falklands team with Canadian chapter of Commonwealth Parliamentary Association

    The Falklands team has ended its successful tour and contacts in Canada, following on a very busy June in the US holding meetings with members of the US Congress, State Department, and NGOs, plus the annual farce of the United Nations Special Decolonization Committee, or C24, where its members, many of them with governments in open violation of the UN charter principles, particularly when it comes to human rights and peoples' rights, have the time to openly support Argentina's claim over the Falkland Islands.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 19:54 UTC

    Bolivian President thanks the support he received during the military uprising

    Arce eventually appointed new chiefs to head the Bolivian Armed Forces, General José Wilson Sánchez replacing Zúñiga

    Bolivian President Luis Arce Catacora thanked his fellow countrymen and the international community for their support Wednesday during the military uprising that was eventually quashed with the arrest of General Juan José Zúñiga and the other rebel leaders and officers.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 09:31 UTC

    Former Honduran president given 45-year prison sentence in US court

    The judge called Hernández a “two-faced politician hungry for power” who protected certain traffickers

    Former Honduran two-time President Juan Orlando Hernández (2014-2022) was sentenced to 45 years in jail by a US Federal Court in the Southern District of New York, which in practical terms will keep him behind bars for the rest of his life. The minimum sentence established by law was 40 years.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 09:26 UTC

    Brazil's STF sets 40 grams of marijuana cap between users and traffickers

    Barroso said the STF should set the amount because decisions concerning people's freedom were to be made and a criterion was needed

    Brazil's Supreme Federal Court (STF) ruled Wednesday that 40 grams of marijuana or six female plants of Cannabis sativa was the limit marking the difference between personal consumption and trafficking, Agencia Brasil reported. The understanding was reached after a decision the previous day whereby using the substance for personal recreation or medicinal purposes should not be penalized. At the time, most justices concurred on this issue but disagreed on how to differentiate the two possibilities.

  • Thursday, June 27th 2024 - 09:20 UTC

    OAS General Assembly opening ceremony focuses on Bolivian crisis

    “We respond to evil with good,” Peña stressed

    As all attendees were focused on the ongoing crisis unfolding in Bolivia, Paraguayan President Santiago Peña opened the Organization of American States (OAS) 54th General Assembly in Asunción by highlighting that democracy was the way to fight transnational crime, drug trafficking, and terrorism.