Get our news on your inbox! x

Remember me Forgot password

MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, June 8th 2026 - 14:12 UTC

Politics

  • 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.

    Add your comment!
  • 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.

    Add your comment!
  • Saturday, May 30th 2026 - 07:51 UTC

    Uruguayan released in Venezuela slept in his building's hallway after finding home taken by his captor

    Originally from Uruguay, Breijo arrived in Venezuela in 1979 to work as a cook

    Uruguayan-Venezuelan citizen José Breijo, 70, on Wednesday recovered the apartment that had been confiscated during his imprisonment in Caracas, after spending several days sleeping in the building's hallway because one of the police officers who had arrested him in 2023 was occupying his home. The case, documented by the AFP news agency, illustrates the pattern of home confiscations denounced by Venezuelan political prisoners and exiled opposition figures during recent years.

    Add your comment!
  • Saturday, May 30th 2026 - 07:31 UTC

    United States and Iran acknowledge preliminary agreement but disagree on its essential terms

    The most significant divergences concern the practical aspects of the eventual deal

    The administrations of US President Donald Trump and the Iranian government confirmed on Friday the existence of a preliminary agreement aimed at extending the current ceasefire by sixty days and opening formal talks on Iran's nuclear program, in what amounts to the most significant diplomatic advance since the start of the war three months ago. However, the versions disseminated by Washington and Tehran on the content of the understanding differ substantially on the central points: the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the fate of the highly enriched uranium under Iranian control, and the possible payment of frozen funds to the Islamic Republic.

    Add your comment!
  • Friday, May 29th 2026 - 23:32 UTC

    Trump labels PCC and Comando Vermelho as terrorist organizations and Brazil fears intervention

    Lula da Silva accused Flávio Bolsonaro, his most likely rival in October's presidential elections, of having “betrayed the homeland by going to the United States to ask for an intervention in Brazil”

    Brazil's government on Friday issued an official note rejecting the decision adopted by the administration of US President Donald Trump to designate Brazil's two main organized crime groups, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho, as terrorist organizations. “We will not accept the use of arbitrary measures from abroad as a pretext to attack our sovereignty and our economy,” the statement warned, while avoiding explicit reference to the US administration. The measure, announced on Thursday, adds both organizations to a list that includes Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the main Mexican cartels, and the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua.

  • Friday, May 29th 2026 - 23:09 UTC

    Colombia votes for new president with healthcare system on verge of collapse as main concern

    The cross-spectrum diagnosis agrees on the gravity of the situation, but the causes divide the political spectrum

    Colombia will hold on Sunday 31 May the first round of the presidential elections that will determine the succession of President Gustavo Petro for the 2026-2030 term, with an electoral roll of 41,287,084 voters and healthcare emerging as the electorate's main concern, according to opinion polls. The national health system is going through its most severe crisis in decades: pharmacies are denying medications, hospitals are closing services, and specialist appointments are indefinitely postponed. A possible runoff would be held on 21 June if none of the fourteen candidates surpasses 50% of the vote.

  • Friday, May 29th 2026 - 07:51 UTC

    Argentine justice advances on 111 assets of the Kirchners and Lázaro Báez in Vialidad case

    Following the Cassation ruling, all that remains for Cristina Kirchner and her children is to file a direct complaint before the Supreme Court

    The Federal Criminal Cassation Chamber of Argentina on Thursday rejected the extraordinary appeals filed by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, her children Máximo and Florencia, and businessman Lázaro Báez against the confiscation of 111 assets ordered as part of the Vialidad case. The decision, adopted by the court's Chamber IV, virtually closes the path to the country's highest tribunal and clears the execution of the asset-related measures associated with the conviction for fraudulent administration imposed on the former president in December 2022 and confirmed by the Supreme Court in June 2025.

  • Friday, May 29th 2026 - 06:42 UTC

    Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru sign joint agreement to combat transnational crime

    “This is not just a political gesture, it is not a diplomatic milestone,” Kast said at the opening, arguing that “there can be a before and an after here”

    The governments of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, and Peru on Thursday signed in Santiago a joint cooperation agreement against transnational organized crime, in a meeting convened by the Chilean government of President José Antonio Kast and attended by five foreign ministers, four security ministers, and one interior minister. The so-called Santiago Regional Compact articulates five areas of cooperation and will be presented before the 56th General Assembly of the Organization of American States to extend the initiative to the rest of the continent.

  • Thursday, May 28th 2026 - 08:11 UTC

    Scotland wants a new independence referendum, despite Downing Street’s rejection

    During the debate in Holyrood, First Minister John Swinney claimed he was confident Scots would back independence if given the chance to vote on the issue again. (Pic PA)

    The consequences of the disastrous results of the recent local elections in UK, both for the incumbent Labour and the Conservatives, not only have questioned PM Keir Starmer’s leadership but revived old challenges. And one of those is Scotland’s call for a second independence referendum.

  • Thursday, May 28th 2026 - 07:26 UTC

    UK’s Royal College of Defense visited Brazil, Argentina and Chile

    The delegation at the Chilean Antarctic Institute

    A delegation from the United Kingdom’s Royal College of Defense Studies (RCDS) visited Chile the week of 18 May as part of its annual tour of Latin America, aimed at strengthening strategic analysis and global understanding of challenges related to security, defense and international cooperation.