MercoPress https://en.mercopress.com/ South Atlantic News Agency en Copyright 2026, MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/web/img/en/mercopress-logo.gif MercoPress http://en.mercopress.com/ <![CDATA[Chile's Kast government reaffirms Valparaíso's bid to host the High Seas Treaty secretariat]]> Known as the “Pearl of the Pacific,” Valparaíso lies 110 kilometers northwest of Santiago and was the most important commercial port in the South Pacific during the 19th century Chile's government on Monday reaffirmed its commitment to Valparaíso's candidacy to host the Executive Secretariat of the High Seas Treaty, a key instrument of ocean governance, and held that the port city has "relevant strengths" to secure it. The Foreign Ministry said the bid responds to the importance that Chilean foreign policy places on protecting the ocean and to the country's "maritime vocation."

]]> Mon, 15 Jun 2026 21:35:00 GMT <![CDATA[Santiago seeks to build a cultural avenue like those in Buenos Aires or Madrid]]> “The goal is to propose a very broad range of activities and to ease public access,” explained the executive director of the Centro Arte Alameda, Roser Fort More than fifty institutions and cultural centers located around Santiago's main avenue agreed on Tuesday to expand their cooperation and coordinate their programming to turn that historic thoroughfare into a cultural hub, similar to those in other capitals such as Buenos Aires or Madrid. Museums, theaters, libraries, cinemas and universities created the Red Alameda Cultural, a platform on which they will publish all their activities to enliven the corridor and offer citizens a complete cultural experience.

]]> Tue, 09 Jun 2026 19:23:00 GMT <![CDATA[Chile's far-right proposes a 'Museum of Truth' on the Allende era to counter coup memory]]> The coup led by Pinochet ousted Allende and began a 17-year dictatorship (1973-1990) in which thousands of people were killed, disappeared or tortured. Seven of the eight deputies of the National Libertarian Party (PNL), the far-right group founded by Johannes Kaiser, presented a resolution in Chile's Congress asking President José Antonio Kast to create a "Museum of Truth" devoted to what they describe as "the abuse, hunger and humiliation" of the Popular Unity government, led by Salvador Allende from 1970 until his overthrow on September 11, 1973.

]]> Fri, 05 Jun 2026 23:06:00 GMT <![CDATA[President Kast denounces 3.6%-of-GDP structural fiscal deficit inherited from Boric administration]]> “We inherited a country with the accounts in disarray, and our obligation is not to complain, but to order them,” Kast said in the legislative chamber Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Monday delivered his first annual Cuenta Pública address before the National Congress, based in Valparaíso, in a speech of two hours and twenty-five minutes centred on the country's fiscal situation and on criticisms of the outgoing administration of leftist Gabriel Boric (2022-2026). The president denounced that the incoming executive received a preliminary structural fiscal deficit of 3.6% of Gross Domestic Product, more than double the 1.6% committed to by the previous government, and characterized the situation as an "economic emergency" requiring urgent measures.

]]> Mon, 01 Jun 2026 22:59:00 GMT <![CDATA[Kast defends first 81 days in office ahead of first "Cuenta Pública" before Chilean Congress]]> “These 81 days have felt to many like 365, because many things happen, but I want to underline that we are moving forward through facts because this is a hands-on government,” Kast said Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Sunday defended the first 81 days of his administration and reaffirmed his main campaign promises on security and migration, on the eve of his first "Cuenta Pública" address to the National Congress, scheduled for Monday in Valparaíso. The far-right leader took office on 11 March and faces on Monday his annual accountability address amid a sustained decline in approval ratings and on the eve of the first legislative test for his government, the Senate vote on the so-called tax megareform.

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 21:19:00 GMT <![CDATA[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.

]]> Sun, 31 May 2026 21:00:00 GMT <![CDATA[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.

]]> Fri, 29 May 2026 06:42:00 GMT <![CDATA[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.

]]> Thu, 28 May 2026 07:26:00 GMT <![CDATA[Chile: Security and Spokesperson ministers fall in first cabinet reshuffle of Kast's government]]> “I did not expect to carry out this cabinet reshuffle, it was not what I had planned for this stage,” Kast said Chilean President José Antonio Kast on Tuesday carried out the first cabinet reshuffle of his administration and removed from their posts the Security Minister, Trinidad Steinert, and the Government Spokesperson, Mara Sedini, in a reorganization that amounts to the fastest ministerial adjustment in Chile since the return to democracy in 1990. The decision comes just over two months after the inauguration of the far-right president, against a backdrop of falling presidential approval to around 40% and an increase in public disapproval to 60%.

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 01:39:00 GMT <![CDATA[Chilean executive detained in Brazil for racist and homophobic insults to Latam flight attendant]]> The executive refers to the cabin crew member as “mono” (monkey) and makes gestures imitating a primate Chilean executive Germán Naranjo Maldini has been held since Friday 15 May at the Guarulhos prison on the outskirts of São Paulo, charged with racial slur after directing racist and homophobic insults at a flight attendant of the airline Latam during a flight between São Paulo and Frankfurt on 10 May. The Chilean fishing company Landes, where he served as commercial manager, formally and preventively removed the executive from his position following the circulation over the weekend of a video showing the verbal attacks.

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 01:42:00 GMT