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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 5th 2026 - 13:38 UTC

Politics

  • Tuesday, June 2nd 2026 - 06:49 UTC

    Falklands to mark 44th anniversary of Liberation Day on 14 June

    At 11 a.m. a parade and ceremony will take place at the Liberation Monument, in front of the Secretariat building

    The Falkland Islands will mark the 44th anniversary of Liberation Day on Sunday, June 14, commemorating the end of the 1982 Argentine occupation. The Falkland Islands Government (FIG) has released the official program of events, which will combine a religious service, a military parade and a civic reception in Stanley.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 22:59 UTC

    President Kast denounces 3.6%-of-GDP structural fiscal deficit inherited from Boric administration

    “We inherited a country with the accounts in disarray, and our obligation is not to complain, but to order them,” Kast said in the legislative chamber

    Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Monday delivered his first annual Cuenta Pública address before the National Congress, based in Valparaíso, in a speech of two hours and twenty-five minutes centred on the country's fiscal situation and on criticisms of the outgoing administration of leftist Gabriel Boric (2022-2026). The president denounced that the incoming executive received a preliminary structural fiscal deficit of 3.6% of Gross Domestic Product, more than double the 1.6% committed to by the previous government, and characterized the situation as an “economic emergency” requiring urgent measures.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 13:39 UTC

    Falklands Legislative Assembly marks Overseas Territories Day and start of Pride Month

    “Though diverse in geography and culture, we are united by our shared values, our commitment to self-governance, and our pride in being British,” the Legislative Assembly said

    The Falklands Legislative Assembly on 1 June marked British Overseas Territories Day with an institutional ceremony at Victory Green, in Stanley, in which the archipelago's flag flew alongside that of the United Kingdom throughout the day. The annual commemoration brings together the fourteen British Overseas Territories scattered across the Caribbean, the South Atlantic, the Antarctic, and the Pacific under a shared agenda of self-government and links with the administering power.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 08:27 UTC

    Falklands, Territorial integrity and selfdetermination dominate discussions,… but oil may change that

    UK counters that descendants of British settlers, present since the 1830s, possess the right to self-determination (Photo BOT)<br />

    The following piece from The Conversation was presented Vicky Kapogianni Lecturer in EU and International Law, University of Reading and Eric Loefflad, Lecturer in Law, LLM Pathway Director for Human Rights Law and International Law with International Relations, University of Kent

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 07:07 UTC

    Colombia: far-right De la Espriella advances first to runoff as Petro disowns results

    A few hours after polls closed, President Gustavo Petro publicly rejected the provisional results and denounced without evidence a variation in the electoral roll of around 800,000 voters

    Far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella took first place in the first round of the Colombian presidential elections held on Sunday, in a result that contradicted all previous polls and immediately opened an institutional crisis. With 99% of polling stations counted in the preliminary tally, De la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria movement, reached 43.7% of the vote —some 10.3 million ballots—, while leftist senator Iván Cepeda, of the ruling Pacto Histórico, obtained 40.9% with 9,649,081 votes. The runoff will be held on 21 June and the inauguration is scheduled for 7 August.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 05:17 UTC

    Uruguay submits EUR 60 million offer to acquire three Royal Navy used patrol vessels

    The units in question correspond to the first generation of the Royal Navy's River class —HMS Tyne, HMS Mersey, and HMS Severn—, built between 2001 and 2003

    The Uruguayan government will this week present a formal offer to the United Kingdom's embassy for the acquisition of three used offshore patrol vessels belonging to the British Royal Navy, for an approximate amount of 60 million euros, as announced by the Deputy Secretary of the Presidency, Jorge Díaz. The operation, structured as a direct state-to-state purchase, fits within the administration of President Yamandú Orsi's search to replace the contract terminated with the Spanish shipyard Cardama, in parallel with the hardening of accusations from the Uruguayan executive against the Vigo-based company over the use of public funds transferred.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 04:58 UTC

    Uruguayan opposition accuses Orsi of “mocking” public after response on vehicle discount

    “In general, when there are discounts I dive in headfirst,” Orsi said on Saturday

    The main opposition forces of Uruguay coincided on Sunday in questioning the public response of President Yamandú Orsi to the discount of approximately USD 25,000 he obtained in the purchase of a zero-kilometre Hyundai Santa Fe SUV a few days before assuming the presidency on 1 March 2025. The Board of Transparency and Public Ethics (Jutep) will review the transaction after receiving three formal citizen complaints, in an episode that is eroding one of the main political assets of the president, associated with an image of transparency and austerity.

  • Sunday, May 31st 2026 - 21:19 UTC

    Kast defends first 81 days in office ahead of first “Cuenta Pública” before Chilean Congress

    “These 81 days have felt to many like 365, because many things happen, but I want to underline that we are moving forward through facts because this is a hands-on government,” Kast said

    Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Sunday defended the first 81 days of his administration and reaffirmed his main campaign promises on security and migration, on the eve of his first “Cuenta Pública” address to the National Congress, scheduled for Monday in Valparaíso. The far-right leader took office on 11 March and faces on Monday his annual accountability address amid a sustained decline in approval ratings and on the eve of the first legislative test for his government, the Senate vote on the so-called tax megareform.

  • Sunday, May 31st 2026 - 21:00 UTC

    US citizen taken during Pinochet dictatorship reunited with Chilean mother after 35 years

    Adler, 36, was given up for illegal adoption in 1990 to a US couple who raised him in an affluent suburb of Chicago

    US citizen Kyle Adler, taken as a nine-month-old baby during the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet in Chile, was reunited this year with his biological mother, Chilean national Ana María Navarrete, thirty-five years after the forced separation. The reunion, which took place on Valentine's Day at Santiago airport and was documented by the Associated Press news agency, illustrates the scale of a network of fraudulent adoptions that during the Chilean military regime (1973-1990) took more than twenty thousand children from poor and indigenous families, according to official estimates.

  • Sunday, May 31st 2026 - 19:30 UTC

    Leftist Iván Cepeda leads in early bulletins of Colombia's presidential first round

    “We are convinced that this afternoon we will celebrate the second progressive government in Colombia,” the senator said

    Leftist senator Iván Cepeda, candidate of the ruling Pacto Histórico coalition, was leading on Sunday in the early bulletins of the count in the first round of Colombia's presidential elections, in which the electorate was to choose the successor of current President Gustavo Petro. With just 1% of the polling stations counted, according to data released by the National Registry Office, Cepeda was obtaining around 47% of the votes, followed by far-right lawyer Abelardo de la Espriella, of the Defensores de la Patria movement, with close to 40%. Right-wing uribista senator Paloma Valencia, of the Centro Democrático, registered around 6%. The effective electoral turnout will be known over the coming hours, in a country with more than 41 million eligible voters and a long historical pattern of high abstention.