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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 5th 2026 - 12:37 UTC

Politics

  • Wednesday, June 17th 2026 - 19:05 UTC

    Trump calls Brazil 'politically difficult'; Lula says he should learn about 'civilized elections'

    “I think Trump knows little about Brazil; if he knows it, it is through his relationship with the Bolsonaro family,” Lula said

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Wednesday asked his US counterpart, Donald Trump, not to interfere in Brazil's elections, a matter he stressed is exclusive to Brazil, just as his country does not seek to meddle in the electoral processes of the United States. The demand was a response to remarks Trump had made about Brazil hours earlier.

  • Wednesday, June 17th 2026 - 09:14 UTC

    Fujimori nears victory in Peru's presidential count as the left calls for protests

    The overseas vote, already tallied, heavily favored Fujimori while within Peru the balance tilted toward Sánchez

    Ten days after the June 7 presidential runoff, Peru still has no proclaimed winner, but the right-wing candidate Keiko Fujimori is heading toward victory. With 99.1% of the vote counted, she leads the left-wing Roberto Sánchez by some 36,889 votes and is projected as the virtual winner, while the left pushes mobilizations and nullity appeals. The official proclamation remains pending on 0.84% of tally sheets under review, with a deadline of mid-July.

  • Wednesday, June 17th 2026 - 08:31 UTC

    Spain's ex-PM Zapatero testifies as a suspect in the Plus Ultra bailout case

    The magistrate attributes to him the alleged offenses of criminal organization, influence peddling, money laundering and documentary falsification

    Spain's former Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero appeared on Wednesday before Judge José Luis Calama, of the Audiencia Nacional, as an investigated person in the Plus Ultra case, in what constitutes an unprecedented event in Spanish democracy: it is the first time a former head of the Executive sits before a magistrate as a suspect. He will answer questions from the judge and his lawyer, but not from the Anti-Corruption prosecutor.

  • Tuesday, June 16th 2026 - 21:48 UTC

    Brazil's Supreme Court sentences Eduardo Bolsonaro to four years for coercion

    Justice Alexandre de Moraes said that Eduardo Bolsonaro himself admitted having moved to the US in 2025 to lobby the US administration for sanctions against the judges prosecuting his father

    Former deputy Eduardo Bolsonaro, son of former president Jair Bolsonaro, was sentenced on Tuesday to four years and two months in prison by Brazil's Supreme Court for coercing the justice system through his lobbying of the United States government to impose sanctions against the country. The sentence would be served under a semi-open regime and automatically entails his political disqualification.

  • Tuesday, June 16th 2026 - 16:48 UTC

    Lula criticizes the resurgence of protectionism and unilateralism at the G7 summit

    The president held that the distance between the prosperity of the most developed economies and the reality of the billions of people living in the global south had grown in recent years

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday criticized the resurgence of protectionism and unilateralism during the G7 summit, arguing that those practices worsen the inequalities between rich and developing countries. “Protectionism and unilateralism are now resurfacing as fallacious responses to the complexity of our problems,” he said in his address at the meeting, held in the French city of Évian, in an apparent reference to Donald Trump's government, according to the transcript released by the Brazilian Presidency.

  • Tuesday, June 16th 2026 - 08:24 UTC

    Some Iranian Americans wave protest flags, others cheer as Iran open the World Cup

    Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran

    Iran began their World Cup campaign in Los Angeles on Monday with a 2-2 draw against New Zealand, before a crowd that mixed fans cheering the team and Iranian Americans waving symbols of protest against the government in Tehran. The match was played barely 24 hours after the announcement of a preliminary agreement to end the war that the United States and Israel launched against Iran in February.

  • Tuesday, June 16th 2026 - 08:07 UTC

    Bolivia's Paz bets on wearing down protests and holds off deploying the army

    The strategy has generated impatience in La Paz, deprived of fuel and food for more than a month, but it has allowed the government to hold out for more than 40 days

    Bolivia's government has opted to wear down the social protests that have shaken the country for about six weeks, rather than resort to a hard line. President Rodrigo Paz promulgated a law regulating states of exception in early June, but has so far not ordered the deployment of the Armed Forces to clear the roads, leaning instead toward exhausting the protesters and dismantling the movements demanding his resignation through the detention or persuasion of their leaders. “The new Bolivia will be built with dialogue, without giving way to violence,” said presidential spokesman José Luis Gálvez.

  • Monday, June 15th 2026 - 21:35 UTC

    Chile's Kast government reaffirms Valparaíso's bid to host the High Seas Treaty secretariat

    Known as the “Pearl of the Pacific,” Valparaíso lies 110 kilometers northwest of Santiago and was the most important commercial port in the South Pacific during the 19th century

    Chile's government on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to Valparaíso's candidacy to host the Executive Secretariat of the High Seas Treaty, a key instrument of ocean governance, and held that the port city has “relevant strengths” to secure it. The Foreign Ministry said the bid responds to the importance that Chilean foreign policy places on protecting the ocean and to the country's “maritime vocation.”

  • Monday, June 15th 2026 - 16:04 UTC

    Peru's electoral board reiterates it will proclaim the president-elect by mid-July

    The tribunal is awaiting the resolution of 1,661 tally sheets (actas) that were flagged on runoff day and sent to the special electoral juries (JEE) for evaluation

    Peru's National Jury of Elections (JNE) reiterated on Monday that the maximum deadline to officially proclaim the new president-elect is mid-July, while vote recounts proceed in three overseas cities over observations to the tally sheets. The body's spokeswoman, Grecia Rentería, said at a press conference that the proclamation would come about two weeks before the swearing-in, set for July 28, with the start of the 2026-2031 term of government.

  • Monday, June 15th 2026 - 15:38 UTC

    Macron skips the planned protocol and does not greet Trump in person at the G7 in France

    Trump arrived in Évian from Geneva airport, where he landed in the early afternoon. At the Hôtel Royal in the spa town, the French leader was not waiting for him on the red carpet

    French President Emmanuel Macron skipped the planned program on Monday and did not personally receive his US counterpart, Donald Trump, on his arrival at the G7 summit in Évian, in the French Alps. The provisional agenda for the meeting had Trump as the only leader to be personally received by the host.