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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, July 18th 2026 - 04:12 UTC

Politics

  • Monday, July 6th 2026 - 00:55 UTC

    Venezuela shifts to clearing rubble and recovering bodies as rescue teams depart

    Managing the rubble is emerging as one of the main challenges

    Venezuela entered a new stage in its response to the June 24 twin earthquake, focused on clearing rubble and recovering bodies, after the departure of nearly all international rescue teams. In the streets of La Guaira, the hardest-hit area, dozens of machines arrived in recent hours to speed up those tasks, which now fall mainly to Venezuelan volunteers, firefighters, civil defense and residents. The official toll stands at 2,954 dead and more than 16,500 injured.

  • Sunday, July 5th 2026 - 20:51 UTC

    Argentina sends fresh rescue brigades to Venezuela as most foreign teams begin to withdraw

    The Argentine contingent's departure comes as most foreign teams begin to leave Venezuela

    A new contingent of Argentine rescue workers left for Venezuela on Sunday to relieve the search-and-rescue teams deployed after the June 24 twin earthquake, which according to the official toll has left 2,954 dead and more than 16,500 injured. The dispatch coincides with the start of the withdrawal of most international missions, at the point when operations are shifting away from rescuing survivors toward the recovery phase.

  • Saturday, July 4th 2026 - 23:35 UTC

    Scathing comments on Labour’s Defense Plan, Sir Keir has scrapped more warships than Britain lost in Falklands War

    In an interview with The Sun, West, said, “the bottom line is that Keir Starmer hasn’t really worried about the size of the Navy and he has allowed it to be marginalized”. (Pic PA)

    Former First Sea Lord Admiral Lord West has warned that the Royal Navy was in its worst state for 350 years, “the number of ships we have is pathetic, to do the things we need to do.”

  • Saturday, July 4th 2026 - 07:28 UTC

    US marks its 250th anniversary as a record heat wave disrupts July 4 events

    A heat dome over the East Coast pushed temperatures to highs near 40 °C, with heat-index values of up to 46 °C and more than 185 million people under weather alerts

    The United States marks the 250th anniversary of its independence on Saturday amid a historic heat wave that has forced the suspension or rescheduling of events in several cities across the country. The semiquincentennial commemoration, recalling the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in Philadelphia in 1776, will have its centerpiece on the National Mall in Washington, with a speech by President Donald Trump and the largest fireworks display in history.

  • Saturday, July 4th 2026 - 07:26 UTC

    Petro says he asked Trump to lift his OFAC sanctions in a phone call

    Petro, his wife, his eldest son and Interior Minister Armando Benedetti were placed on that list in October 2025

    Colombian President Gustavo Petro said he held a phone conversation on Friday with his US counterpart, Donald Trump, in which he asked for support in removing the sanctions on him and his family under the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) list, known as the Clinton List. According to the Colombian leader and a statement from the Presidency, Trump replied that he “will do his best” to review the case. The White House did not officially confirm the call.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 23:29 UTC

    Six months after Maduro's capture, Rodríguez's interim mandate expires after the quake

    Maduro's capture led to a reconfiguration of power headed by Rodríguez and her brother Jorge

    Six months after the capture of former president Nicolás Maduro by the United States, Venezuela faces an institutional crossroads: the 180-day interim mandate of acting President Delcy Rodríguez —granted after Maduro's removal in January— was set to expire on Friday, with no clarity on what would come next. The uncertainty is compounded by the June 24 twin earthquake, which left more than 2,500 dead according to the official toll and has become the government's biggest test of competence.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 09:58 UTC

    Mercosur backs Argentina days after Islanders' UN appeal for self-determination

    Mercosur's 68th Presidential Summit in Asunción issued a Special Declaration reiterating their support for Argentina's “legitimate rights” in the sovereignty dispute over the Falklands

    Within the span of a week, the two opposing positions in the Falklands dispute were laid out clearly in two separate arenas: South American governments' backing for Argentina's sovereignty claim, and the defense of self-determination that two representatives of the Islanders took to the United Nations. Neither pronouncement was a reply to the other, but together they illustrate the distance between two hard-to-reconcile logics.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 08:55 UTC

    In Uruguay, Kast urges harsher penalties for crime leaders and total prison isolation

    Kast held that security is the main condition for economic development and described organized crime as a “cancer” affecting all of Latin America

    Chile's President José Antonio Kast argued on Wednesday in Montevideo that the region's countries must toughen their laws to combat organized crime, with life sentences for those who lead gangs and a regime of total isolation in prisons to stop them from continuing to operate from behind bars. The president laid out his position after meeting with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, as part of an official visit to Uruguay.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 07:53 UTC

    Milei abolishes the Interior Ministry, expanding Santilli's role ahead of Congress talks

    President Javier Milei had anticipated the reform after appointing Santilli to replace Manuel Adorni, who resigned last week amid a judicial investigation into alleged illicit enrichment

    Argentina's government abolished the Interior Ministry and transferred its functions to the cabinet chief's office, headed by Diego Santilli, through an emergency decree published on Thursday in the Official Gazette. The measure places the political relationship with governors, provinces, municipalities, the City of Buenos Aires and Congress under the coordinating minister's remit, along with powers over the electoral system and political parties. With the change, the national cabinet is reduced to eight ministries.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 22:12 UTC

    Argentine ex-official Insaurralde seeks to bar the cash-stacks video from his graft case

    Last week, federal prosecutor Sergio Mola had requested the detention of Insaurralde and Cirio, arguing there was a risk they might alter or hide evidence

    The former cabinet chief of Buenos Aires province and ex-mayor of Lomas de Zamora, Martín Insaurralde, asked the courts not to use as evidence the video in which his ex-wife, television host Jesica Cirio, appears alongside stacks of dollars in the closet of the house they shared, as part of a case for alleged illicit enrichment and money laundering. The motion, filed before federal judge Luis Armella, mirrors the one Cirio herself had made days earlier; she also faces a pending order to give testimony.