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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, October 10th 2026 - 23:50 UTC

Politics

  • Wednesday, May 13th 2026 - 11:57 UTC

    White House “51st state” trolling tests Caracas's oil opening

    The “51st state” map had appeared in earlier posts by the US administration, alongside references to the annexation of Greenland

    The official White House account on Tuesday published a series of messages on social media platform X suggesting the annexation of Venezuela to the United States under the formula of the “51st state,” a discursive shift that strains the bilateral rapprochement built since the capture of former President Nicolás Maduro on 3 January. The first post shows a map of Venezuela covered with the US flag and the caption “51st State”; eight minutes later, a video revives Secretary of State Marco Rubio's announcement of Maduro's capture, with footage of the former leader being flown to New York. The publication comes at a moment of apparent stagnation in the economic opening that acting President Delcy Rodríguez has pushed from Caracas to attract US investment.

  • Wednesday, May 13th 2026 - 03:20 UTC

    The Trump-Xi summit in Beijing turns on five fronts: Iran, Taiwan, tariffs, rare earths, and AI

    Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian last week described the issue as “the core of China's fundamental interests and the political foundation” of the relationship

    The summit between US President Donald Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping that begins on Wednesday in Beijing will unfold around an agenda concentrated on five main fronts: the US war against Iran, the Taiwan question, bilateral tariffs, Chinese exports of rare earths, and, according to The Wall Street Journal, an initial approach to managing the risks of artificial intelligence. It will be the first visit by a US president to the Chinese capital in nearly nine years and comes three days after China's Foreign Ministry released a propaganda video that revived the Soviet-era concept of “peaceful coexistence” to describe the bilateral relationship.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 23:32 UTC

    Lula seeks his own security recipe to counter Brazilian right wing's tough-on-crime narrative

    The plan also includes investments to regain control of 138 penitentiary facilities through drones, scanners, and metal detectors

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday unveiled in Brasília a public security plan worth around USD 2.25 billion aimed at weakening the finances of organized crime, regaining control of prisons, curbing arms trafficking, and improving homicide investigations, five months ahead of October's presidential election. The package is designed to give the government a distinct identity on one of the issues where public opinion sees the ruling party at its weakest against the right wing's punitive narrative.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 14:14 UTC

    Strait of Hormuz closure, FAO warns of fertilizer scarcity and calendar for new planting season

    FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu said. “This is not only a geopolitical crisis, but also a disruption at the core of the global agri-food system.”

    The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), QU Dongyu, warned that the global fertilizer scarcity caused by disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz will lead to lower yields and tightening food supplies in the latter half of 2026 and into 2027.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 13:28 UTC

    UK Defense minister “sick and tired of journalists and armchair generals” talking our military are ‘unprepared’

    UK Defense Readiness & Industry Minister Luke Pollard, during a late 2024 visit to the Falkland Islands (Pic BFSAI))

    In a contradictory remark he would later retract, UK Defense Readiness & Industry Minister Luke Pollard said he was sick and tired of “journalists and armchair generals” talking down the military, as he was pressed in response to a BFBS Forces News audience poll.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 13:21 UTC

    How a British prime minister is replaced: the keys to a possible Starmer succession

    The statutory procedure requires at least one-fifth of the Labour parliamentary group to call for leadership primaries in order to force the prime minister to step aside. Photo: Phil Noble / REUTERS

    British Prime Minister Keir Starmer faces the most serious political crisis since his arrival at Downing Street in July 2024, but a potential change at the head of the government runs up against a web of internal Labour Party rules, the absence of a consensus candidate, and the personal obstacles weighing on the figure best positioned in internal polling. Starmer, who won the 2024 general election with an overwhelming majority, has flatly ruled out resigning despite mounting pressure from his own parliamentary group following Labour's collapse in the local and regional elections of 1 May.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 13:14 UTC

    Argentina sees new university protest as government pledges post-march dialogue

    The National Interuniversity Council estimates that transfers to national universities fell by 45.6% in real terms between 2023 and 2026, while sector salaries rose 158% against accumulated inflation

    Argentina's public universities are staging the fourth Federal University March on Tuesday against the budget adjustment imposed by Javier Milei's government, with the main rally in Plaza de Mayo and simultaneous mobilizations in the country's major cities, while the national administration announced it will meet with rectors after the protest to discuss the allocation of funds for university hospitals. The day combines a strike with suspended classes, a broad opposition turnout, and an official discursive shift aimed at opening a dialogue channel without yielding on the substance of the dispute.

  • Tuesday, May 12th 2026 - 03:14 UTC

    Peru's runoff to pit Fujimori's daughter against Castillo's political heir

    An Ipsos poll released in late April places both candidates in a technical tie at 38%, with 17% reporting they would cast blank or spoiled ballots

    Peru will hold a presidential runoff on 7 June pitting Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori (1990-2000), against Roberto Sánchez, a congressman and self-proclaimed political heir of Pedro Castillo, the rural schoolteacher who reached the presidency in 2021 and is now serving an eleven-year, five-month sentence for the failed self-coup he attempted on 7 December 2022.

  • Monday, May 11th 2026 - 23:18 UTC

    Evo Morales fails to appear at minor-trafficking trial; court orders his arrest

    The former president has been in hiding since 2024 in Chapare, the tropical coca-growing region where he forged his union and political career

    The First Criminal Sentencing Court of Tarija, in southern Bolivia, on Monday declared former president Evo Morales (2006-2019) in contempt and ratified the arrest and travel-ban orders against him after he failed to attend the opening of his oral trial for alleged aggravated human trafficking. The same measure was applied to Idelsa Pozo Saavedra, mother of the alleged victim. Judge Carlos Oblitas suspended the proceedings without a new date, pending the arrest or voluntary appearance of the defendants.

  • Monday, May 11th 2026 - 20:32 UTC

    Milei government cuts nearly 1.79 billion dollar from budget with sharp education adjustment

    The politically most sensitive cut affects the Education Secretariat, with a reduction of 78.7 billion pesos (around 56 million dollars)

    The government of Javier Milei amended Argentina's 2026 budget on Monday with a cut of nearly 2.5 trillion pesos (around 1.79 billion dollars at the parallel exchange rate) —equivalent to approximately 1.6% of the total— in an administrative decision that deepens the adjustment effort to sustain the fiscal surplus target agreed with the International Monetary Fund. The measure, signed by Chief of Staff Manuel Adorni and Economy Minister Luis Caputo, comes one day before the fourth Federal University March, called for Tuesday with its main event in Plaza de Mayo.