https://en.mercopress.com/ South Atlantic News Agency en Copyright 2026, MercoPress. https://en.mercopress.com/web/img/en/mercopress-logo.gif http://en.mercopress.com/ The Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office has filed an indictment against Gianina García Troche, the former partner of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset, that reconstructs in detail the criminal structure operating from Paraguay that for years moved cocaine from Bolivia to major European ports. The document, cited by the Uruguayan newspaper El País, lays out a three-pronged organization, nearly a thousand clandestine flights inside the Paraguayan Chaco, and a verified export volume amounting to 17,340 kilos of cocaine seized in Belgium and the Netherlands, valued at up to USD 434 million on the European market.

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:44:00 GMT El expresidente boliviano Evo Morales (2006-2019) elevó este domingo la presión sobre el Gobierno de Rodrigo Paz al exigir la convocatoria de elecciones generales en un plazo de 90 días "para que no haya muertos, para que no haya heridos", en una nueva escalada del pulso político que mantiene paralizadas a las ciudades de La Paz y El Alto desde hace tres semanas. El líder cocalero, prófugo de la justicia boliviana por un caso de presunta trata agravada de menores, advirtió que cualquier decisión del Ejecutivo de "militarizar" el país para desbloquear las rutas constituiría una alternativa "suicida".

]]> Mon, 25 May 2026 00:38:00 GMT The political and social crisis that has been shaking Bolivia for 15 days escalated on Wednesday into a regional diplomatic confrontation, with the government of Rodrigo Paz expelling the Colombian ambassador to La Paz, Elizabeth García, denouncing before the Organization of American States an attempt at "institutional destabilization," and receiving public backing from the United States and from several governments in the region. The decision was taken after Colombian President Gustavo Petro described the protests as a "popular insurrection" and said that in Bolivia "there is a people in the streets being killed," statements considered "interfering" by La Paz.

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 23:18:00 GMT The US Department of Justice on Wednesday filed formal charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro and five other Cuban military officers on counts of murder, conspiracy to murder US citizens, and destruction of aircraft, in connection with the shootdown on 24 February 1996 of two civilian planes operated by the anti-Castro organization Brothers to the Rescue. The indictment, approved on 23 April by a grand jury of the Southern District of Florida, was unveiled at the Freedom Tower in Miami on the same day the Cuban diaspora commemorates Independence Day, a date the Havana regime does not celebrate. It is the first time in nearly 70 years that a senior leader of the Cuban regime has faced criminal charges in the United States over events that resulted in the deaths of US citizens.

]]> Wed, 20 May 2026 18:29:00 GMT The center of La Paz turned on Monday into the stage of a more than three-hour pitched battle in which thousands of salaried miners and peasants clashed with police forces trying to prevent their entry to Plaza Murillo, the seat of Bolivia's executive and legislative branches. The protesters threw dynamite charges at the police, who responded with tear gas. The cordons were not overrun, and the Army, deployed around the square as the last line of defense, did not intervene directly. The mobilization is the largest challenge President Rodrigo Paz has faced since taking office six months ago.

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 12:10:00 GMT Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned on Monday that a possible US military attack on the island "will provoke a bloodbath of incalculable consequences," in the most explicit hardening of Havana's discourse toward Washington since the start of the oil blockade imposed in January. The message, released through the X social media platform, coincided with the public confirmation that the Cuban government has acquired more than 300 drones from China and Iran, a purchase that island authorities framed as part of the exercise of their "legitimate defense." The rhetorical shift comes just four days after the visit to Havana by the director of the US Central Intelligence Agency, John Ratcliffe.

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 02:09:00 GMT 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 The Bolivian government on Monday denounced the presence of “armed groups” in the march of peasant farmers and supporters of former president Evo Morales that descended on the city of La Paz, the seat of the executive and legislative branches, after a six-day walk from the highlands, demanding the resignation of President Rodrigo Paz. Deputy Interior Minister Hernán Paredes estimated at “somewhat more than ten thousand people” the column of protesters that entered the capital from the neighboring city of El Alto, in what authorities described as an attempt by the former leader to destabilize the executive six months into his term.

]]> Mon, 18 May 2026 18:31:00 GMT Brazil consolidated its position as South America's leading defense spender during 2025, with a military budget of approximately USD 23.9 billion and a 13% year-on-year increase, while Uruguay recorded one of the steepest relative rises in the region, according to the annual report of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) released on Saturday. The region as a whole increased its military spending by 3.4% compared with 2024, in line with a global trend of armed forces modernization, open conflicts, and growing geopolitical tensions.

]]> Sun, 17 May 2026 13:48:00 GMT Bolivian President Rodrigo Paz on Friday thanked his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, for sending two C-130 Hercules military aircraft to reinforce the airlift aimed at supplying food and basic goods to the cities of La Paz and El Alto, affected by ten consecutive days of road blockades by peasant unions from the highlands. The regional gesture comes during one of the most critical weeks of the centrist leader's six-month tenure, against a backdrop of shortages and growing political tension with sectors aligned with former president Evo Morales.

]]> Sat, 16 May 2026 04:16:00 GMT