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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, June 18th 2026 - 17:48 UTC

Politics

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 23:56 UTC

    Fujimori and Sánchez close campaigns in Lima before Peru's tight Sunday runoff

    Fujimori said the country had become “trapped in its wounds” and stressed the need to “build bridges” toward dialogue. Sánchez aimed his message at his rival: “The chaos is over,” he said

    Peru's presidential candidates, conservative Keiko Fujimori and leftist Roberto Sánchez, closed their campaigns in Lima on Thursday before thousands of supporters, three days before a runoff that polls suggest will be very close. Fujimori appealed for the “unity and reconciliation” of Peruvians, while Sánchez promised to end the “chaos” and centered his speech on anti-fujimorismo.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 23:12 UTC

    US sanctions Cuba's president Díaz-Canel and inner circle in push for regime change

    The executive order, signed on May 1, also authorizes secondary sanctions against foreign companies and financial institutions that deal with key sectors of the Cuban economy

    The United States sanctioned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his closest circle on Thursday, in a fresh escalation of Washington's pressure on the island with the stated goal of forcing a change of regime after 67 years of communist government. Havana rejected the move at once.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 23:06 UTC

    Chile's far-right proposes a 'Museum of Truth' on the Allende era to counter coup memory

    The coup led by Pinochet ousted Allende and began a 17-year dictatorship (1973-1990) in which thousands of people were killed, disappeared or tortured.

    Seven of the eight deputies of the National Libertarian Party (PNL), the far-right group founded by Johannes Kaiser, presented a resolution in Chile's Congress asking President José Antonio Kast to create a “Museum of Truth” devoted to what they describe as “the abuse, hunger and humiliation” of the Popular Unity government, led by Salvador Allende from 1970 until his overthrow on September 11, 1973.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 22:49 UTC

    Bolivia's blockade crisis reopens a deep racial divide

    In a wealthy La Paz neighborhood, graffiti appeared inciting violence against Indigenous people —“be patriotic, kill an Indian”

    The social conflict in Bolivia has split the country once again. The road blockade led by Indigenous peasants, which has besieged La Paz for more than a month, has brought expressions of racism to the surface in the capital. Worn down by the lack of gasoline and food and by soaring prices, some residents lash out at the protesters —and the hostility runs in both directions.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 07:08 UTC

    Argentina warns it could 'fully exercise all actions' over Falklands oil drilling plans

    The Sea Lion field, north of the archipelago, is operated by Navitas, which holds 65% of the project, while Rockhopper, which discovered it, retains 35%

    Argentina's government warned that it could “fully exercise all” available actions over plans to develop an oil field near the Falkland Islands, in a fresh escalation of the sovereignty dispute. The Foreign Ministry declared the plans of Britain's Rockhopper Exploration “unlawful” and described that company and its Israeli partner, Navitas Petroleum, as “clandestine,” after the Sea Lion project moved from exploration into development.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 00:26 UTC

    Argentine Senate approves a judge Milei opposed over her ties to an investigative journalist

    The Justice Ministry had asked to withdraw the nomination after the family tie to Alconada Mon —who investigates, among other cases, the $LIBRA cryptocurrency scandal— became known

    Argentina's Senate on Thursday approved the appointment of María Verónica Michelli as a judge of Federal Oral Court No. 3 in La Plata, a nomination President Javier Milei had tried to block because she is the sister-in-law of journalist Hugo Alconada Mon, of the newspaper LA NACION. The nomination was approved on the floor by 44 votes to 18 —all the negatives from the ruling party— with two abstentions, in a session that exposed a rift within the governing bloc.

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 21:15 UTC

    Colombian judge orders De la Espriella to stop using national team jersey in campaign

    De la Espriella rejected the decision in a campaign statement and said his legal team had already requested that the measure be overturned

    A Bogotá court ordered presidential candidate Abelardo de la Espriella and his party, Defensores de la Patria, to refrain from using the Colombian national football jersey at campaign events and in advertising, while it studies a constitutional protection action filed by a citizen. The provisional measure, issued on June 3 by the 120th Municipal Criminal Court, takes immediate effect and also covers social media and the press.

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 15:32 UTC

    Uruguay's anti-graft body faces Congress as opposition alleges 'political use' in Orsi case

    The controversy stems from the purchase of the vehicle, valued on the market at about 79,000 dollars, which Orsi bought for 54,000 dollars days before taking office

    The directorate of Uruguay's Transparency and Public Ethics Board (Jutep) appeared on Thursday before the Chamber of Deputies' Security and Coexistence Commission, amid the controversy over President Yamandú Orsi's purchase of a Hyundai Santa Fe. National Party deputy Pablo Abdala, who requested the summons, accused the body of “political use.”

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 15:11 UTC

    Petro drops constituent assembly bid 17 days before Colombia's presidential runoff

    The electoral context ultimately weighed on the move

    The committee that had promoted a National Constituent Assembly championed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced on Thursday that it was halting the collection of signatures and withdrawing the project to reform the 1991 Constitution. The decision, taken 17 days before the June 21 presidential runoff, seeks to clear the way for the governing bloc's candidate, Senator Iván Cepeda, in a move that reshapes the electoral landscape.

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 10:40 UTC

    US proposes forced-labor tariffs on 60 economies, with Brazil and China facing 12.5%

    The initiative seeks to replace the tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February, when it found that President Donald Trump had exceeded his authority by using an economic emergency law

    The US government proposed tariffs of up to 12.5% on 60 economies —59 countries and the 27-nation European Union— for failing to ban or effectively enforce the prohibition on imports of goods made with forced labor. The measure, announced Tuesday night by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, relies on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act and is the White House's most ambitious step yet to rebuild its tariff policy.