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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 18th 2025 - 21:37 UTC

Politics

  • Wednesday, May 31st 2023 - 12:12 UTC

    Lula rebuts comments from Boric and Lacalle

    “No one needs to agree with anyone. This is how we do it”, said Lula in response to Lacalle's and Boric's criticism.

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva stated on Tuesday that the meeting of 11 South American presidents at the Itamaraty Palace was not a group of friends, but of presidents seeking regional coordination, reported Agência Brasil.

  • Wednesday, May 31st 2023 - 11:03 UTC

    Colombia returns to Unasur, Petro announces

    Former Colombian President Iván Duque had withdrawn from Unasur citing it only served the purposes of “Venezuela's dictatorship”

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro Tuesday announced in Brasilia the return of his country to the Union of South American Nations (Unasur). “I have requested that it be called Association of South American Nations to guarantee pluralism and permanence in time,” said Petro five years after then-President Ivan Duque left the organization claiming that it served the interests of the “dictatorship” of Venezuela.

  • Wednesday, May 31st 2023 - 10:12 UTC

    UK condemns “desecration” of maritime military graves in Malaysian waters

    Malaysian authorities believe the shells could be from two British World War II shipwrecks Image: Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency

    Malaysia questioned a Chinese-registered vessel suspected of looting two British World War II shipwrecks. The ship was seized over the weekend after it anchored without a permit off Malaysia's southern Johor state, the Malaysian Maritime Enforcement Agency chief in the region, Nurul Hizam Zakaria, said on Tuesday.

  • Wednesday, May 31st 2023 - 10:00 UTC

    Businessman to run for Ecuador's presidency

    Maruri helped write the new Constitution in 2007

    Ecuadorian businessman Eduardo Maruri will run in the Aug. 20 snap elections called in his country after President Guillermo Lasso enacted the so-called “crossed death” mechanism earlier this month dissolving the National Assembly and ruling by decree until 137 new lawmakers and a new President and Vice President are chosen to hold those positions for terms ending in May 2025.

  • Tuesday, May 30th 2023 - 23:49 UTC

    Amid controversy in Brasilia regarding Venezuela, Fernández holds bilateral talks with Maduro

    Nevertheless, other leaders at the Presidents’ meeting were critical with the presence of Maduro and the gesture Lula da Silva made on Monday

    The South American Presidents' Meeting held in Brasilia witnessed a series of controversial exchanges among regional leaders, highlighting the complexities surrounding the situation in Venezuela. In that context, Argentine President Alberto Fernández engaged in a bilateral meeting with Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, aiming to foster consensus and reinforce mechanisms for regional integration in Latin America.

  • Tuesday, May 30th 2023 - 22:11 UTC

    Presidents Boric and Lacalle Pou criticize Lula da Silva's defense of Maduro's Regime in Brasilia

    “It is serious and I have had the opportunity to see it in the eyes and in the pain of hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans in our homeland,” Boric said.

    Chilean President Gabriel Boric expressed his strong disagreement on Tuesday with the statements made by his Brazilian counterpart, Lula da Silva, who had claimed on Monday that the notion of authoritarianism in Venezuela was a “constructed narrative.” Boric emphasized the seriousness of the situation in Venezuela and distanced himself from Lula's defense of Nicolás Maduro and his regime.

  • Tuesday, May 30th 2023 - 10:55 UTC

    Lula promises Maduro that integration “will be full”

    Lula plans to promote the de-dollarization of South American economies during Tuesday's Summit

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva Monday told his Venezuelan counterpart Nicolás Maduro at the Planalto Palace that the resumption of diplomatic ties between the two countries “will be full.” Maduro, who seldom travels abroad, is in Brasilia to attend Tuesday's Summit of South American leaders hosted by the continent's largest country.

  • Tuesday, May 30th 2023 - 10:54 UTC

    How the Far Left paves the way for the Far Right, the Chilean experience

    Boric’s generation came to power in early 2022, promising to increase taxes on the rich and redistribute the proceeds.

    By Andrés Velasco

    In October 2022, Chileans elected a far-left constitutional convention that produced a text so bizarrely radical that nearly two-thirds of voters rejected it. Now Chileans have elected a new Constitutional Council and put a far-right party in the driver’s seat.

  • Tuesday, May 30th 2023 - 10:32 UTC

    Former Salvadoran president convicted in absentia

    Funes has had Nicaraguan citizenship since 2019

    A Salvadoran court Monday sentenced former President Mauricio Funes (2009-2014) to 14 years in prison for his alleged negotiations with criminal gangs. Funes, currently living in Nicaragua, got 8 years for illicit groupings and 6 years for breach of duty. Nicaragua gave him citizenship in 2019.

  • Tuesday, May 30th 2023 - 10:10 UTC

    Paraguayan President-elect meets with Argentine and Uruguayan leaders

    Peña first met with Fernández in Buenos Aires and then had lunch in Montevideo with Lacalle

    Paraguay's President-elect Santiago Peña Monday met in Buenos Aires with Argentine President Alberto Fernández and later in the day, he traveled to Montevideo for an encounter with President Luis Lacalle Pou as both La Plata River leaders were preparing to travel to Brasilia for the South American Summit convened by Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva.