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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 5th 2026 - 18:33 UTC

Politics

  • Wednesday, July 22nd 2026 - 07:18 UTC

    US readies tariffs on some 60 economies over forced labor, with Argentina among them

    The proposal, put forward by Greer's office in June following an investigation launched in March, contemplates two tiers

    US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer said his government will announce new tariffs on some 60 economies in the coming days for failing to enforce bans on the import of goods produced with forced labor. “The US has laws to prohibit trading goods with forced labor. Other countries, most of them, don't have a law, and those that do really don't enforce it,” he said on Tuesday in an interview with CNBC.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 21:34 UTC

    Baseless conspiracy theories about Argentina's defeat go viral and are debunked

    The coach attributed the defeat to the opponent's performance: “We lost because they played better, it's good to acknowledge that.”

    In the hours after Argentina's 1-0 defeat to Spain in the 2026 World Cup final, social media filled with posts claiming, without offering evidence, that the result was “fixed.” Fact-checkers and Argentina's own coach, Lionel Scaloni, moved to dismiss those versions.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 21:23 UTC

    US reacts to Ortega's announcement that Nicaragua will hold no more elections

    “Daniel Ortega's declaration that under his family's dictatorship Nicaragua will never again hold elections lays bare their true authoritarian nature,” Rubio said

    US Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned on Tuesday that his country “will not stand idly by” after Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announced that the country will no longer hold elections. In a State Department statement, Rubio called on the international community to “join forces” to respond to what he described as the Nicaraguan government's attacks on the democratic principles of the hemisphere.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 21:08 UTC

    Conmebol presses FIFA for a 64-team 2030 World Cup and more matches in South America

    The proposal, originally presented by Uruguay's Ignacio Alonso to the FIFA Council in March 2025 and taken up by Domínguez, faces strong opposition

    The South American Football Confederation (Conmebol) has stepped up its pressure on FIFA for the 2030 World Cup to be played with 64 teams, which would allow Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay to host more matches than currently planned. A day after the 2026 World Cup final, won by Spain, the body's president, Alejandro Domínguez, treated the format as all but settled in a message on the social network X: “In 2030 the World Cup is coming to Uruguay, Argentina, and Paraguay,” he wrote, proposing to mark the centenary “with a 64-team competition.”

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 21:01 UTC

    Falklands Assembly congratulates Burnham and looks to continuity with London

    The Assembly reaffirmed the principle that, it said, has been and will remain the foundation of its bond with the United Kingdom

    The Falklands Legislative Assembly congratulated the United Kingdom's new prime minister, Labour's Andy Burnham, and expressed confidence in the continuity of the relationship between the islands and London, in an official statement issued on Tuesday. The territory's legislative body said it looks forward to working with the new prime minister and his government, and to “continuing the close and productive relationship” between the two sides.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 07:16 UTC

    PM Andy Burnham’s first conversation was with President Trump, whom he invited to visit Manchester

    The Prime Minister also hoped that he would be able to show the President what Manchester had to offer during a visit in the future.

    Prime Minister Andy Burnham spoke to the President of the United States, Donald Trump, shortly after taking office Monday afternoon, 20th July 2026. According to 10 Downing Street, the Prime Minister began by congratulating the President on a successful World Cup and agreed that England had an excellent tournament.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 07:10 UTC

    The Falklands, FIFA and the Future of the British Overseas Territories

    Members of the Argentine team held up a banner exclaiming ‘Las Malvinas son Argentinas’ (‘The Falklands are Argentine’).

    By Peter Clegg (*) <br />
    <br />
    I have been researching the British Overseas Territories (BOTs) and their geopolitical relationships for over twenty years, and I cannot remember so much focus on them as there has been in recent days. The FIFA World Cup match between England and Argentina provoked heated discussions over the future of the Falkland Islands (or Malvinas if you are Argentine). Gibraltar has received significant media coverage with the removal of the border infrastructure with Spain. The Caricom Reparations Committee has called for the British Virgin Islands (BVI) to be decolonized by the UK, and new UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham will likely retain the government’s commitment to return the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. So, are we witnessing centrifugal forces that could fracture the BOTs’ relationship with the ‘UK family’?

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 20:52 UTC

    Burnham's first moves as UK PM: new chancellor, Miliband to foreign office and a social turn

    Burnham, 56, acknowledged the fragility of his position and said politicians “need to be better” to restore stability

    The United Kingdom's new prime minister, Labour's Andy Burnham, began shaping his government with a cabinet reshuffle and a series of socially oriented announcements, hours after taking office in place of Keir Starmer. The former mayor of Greater Manchester, who reached Downing Street without a general election after winning the Labour leadership, is Britain's seventh prime minister in a decade.

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 20:12 UTC

    Petro calls for 'general and indefinite strike' if successor repeals his reforms

    Petro warned that a repeal of the labor reform, approved in June last year, would in his view represent a setback for workers' rights

    Colombia's outgoing president, Gustavo Petro, called on Monday for a “general and indefinite strike” should the government of his successor, Abelardo de la Espriella, repeal his administration's labor reform or reverse the land reform. De la Espriella, elected in the June 21 runoff, will take office on August 7.

  • Monday, July 20th 2026 - 20:03 UTC

    Ortega says Nicaragua will hold no more elections

    The president announced during the commemoration of the Sandinista revolution that he will pursue legal reforms to prevent the opposition from contesting power through the ballot box

    Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said on Sunday that the country will no longer hold elections as a mechanism for the opposition to reach power. “There will be no more elections here for them to try to seize the government, to seize power,” he declared during the event marking the 47th anniversary of the Sandinista uprising that overthrew Anastasio Somoza Debayle in 1979, held in Managua.