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[From Montevideo to Luján: Leo XIV’s tour of Uruguay and Argentina]]> “It fills me with joy to return to the continent where I have lived so many moments of my life,” wrote the pontiff, who was born in Chicago and spent almost two decades as a missionary in Peru Pope Leo XIV will begin a tour of South America in Montevideo on November 6 that will take him to Uruguay, Argentina and Peru, with open-air Masses, meetings with Presidents Yamandú Orsi and Javier Milei, and events with young people, workers and prisoners. His stop in Argentina, from November 8 to 11, will be the first papal visit to the country since John Paul II’s in April 1987.

]]> Sat, 31 Oct 2026 01:14:00 GMT <![CDATA[Argentina confirms Bolsonaro crossed via Iguazú before flying to Miami]]> The migration agency’s statement does not say who organised the journey or mention any government involvement Argentina’s government confirmed that Brazilian Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, defeated in Sunday’s presidential runoff and barred by a court from leaving Brazil, entered Argentina at Puerto Iguazú with his family before flying to the United States on a private plane. Bolsonaro landed on Wednesday morning at Opa-locka Executive Airport in Miami.

]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2026 14:50:00 GMT <![CDATA[Latin America’s energy inflation reaches its highest level in a year]]> The study, based on data from the statistics institutes and central banks of member countries, shows energy inflation exceeded the previous high for the period, 8.03% in June Annual energy inflation in Latin America and the Caribbean accelerated to 8.33% in August, its highest level in twelve months, and pressure on fuel prices continued in September and October, when diesel prices matched petrol for the first time, according to a report by the Latin American Energy Organization (OLADE) published by the Energy Report website.

]]> Wed, 28 Oct 2026 03:30:00 GMT <![CDATA[Trump questions Lula’s victory as most of the region, including the right, congratulates him]]> “They just applied the Biden playbook in Brazil. Bolsonaro had a big lead in the first round and was the clear favourite. But communists don’t give up power once they get it,” Trump said US President Donald Trump cast doubt on Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva’s re-election in Brazil and compared it with the 2020 US election, while most Latin American governments, including several right-wing allies of Washington, congratulated the Brazilian president. In Argentina, President Javier Milei remained silent.

]]> Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:16:00 GMT <![CDATA[Milei stays silent on Lula’s victory as Kast and Peña congratulate him]]> Neither the president nor Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno had issued a statement on the result, according to the Argentine press Argentine President Javier Milei had not congratulated Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on his re-election in Brazil by Monday, unlike other right-wing South American leaders such as Chile’s José Antonio Kast, Paraguay’s Santiago Peña and Bolivia’s Rodrigo Paz. Milei, who publicly backed Senator Flávio Bolsonaro during the campaign, met his cabinet at the Casa Rosada first thing in the morning.

]]> Mon, 26 Oct 2026 13:05:00 GMT <![CDATA[The Pope cancels a visit to Assisi as a medical precaution, two weeks before his South American tour]]> According to a medical bulletin released by the Vatican on Friday, a follow-up chest X-ray “confirmed his optimal post-operative recovery” Pope Leo XIV has cancelled a visit planned for Tuesday, October 27, to Assisi, in central Italy, after his doctors advised against helicopter travel so soon after the lung surgery he underwent on October 13. It is the first engagement on his schedule to be called off since the operation, two weeks before the start of his tour of Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.

]]> Fri, 23 Oct 2026 18:19:00 GMT <![CDATA[Kast and Paz open the way in La Paz to normalising Chile-Bolivia relations]]> “President Paz, today we stop turning our backs on each other. We did not come just for a gesture, we came to begin making history,” Kast said after the bilateral meetings Chilean President José Antonio Kast and his Bolivian counterpart Rodrigo Paz pledged on Friday in La Paz to move towards normalising diplomatic relations “at the highest level”, broken off since 1978, during a visit the Chilean government described as historic as the first official bilateral visit by a Chilean president to Bolivia in more than seven decades. The two governments signed economic integration and border security agreements, although they did not announce the restoration of embassies.

]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2026 21:50:00 GMT <![CDATA[Lubetkin warns Flávio Bolsonaro that “it is not easy to leave Mercosur”]]> “It is not easy to leave Mercosur. There are too many interrelated agreements in the business sphere, and that would cause major losses for the Brazilian economy,” Lubetkin said Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin has warned Brazilian presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro that “it is not easy to leave Mercosur”, in response to his criticism of the bloc during the campaign for the October 25 runoff. In the same interview, with the newspaper Folha de S.Paulo, he said Uruguay would not restore diplomatic relations with Venezuela while Delcy Rodríguez governs.

]]> Tue, 13 Oct 2026 14:52:00 GMT <![CDATA[IMF trims Latin America’s outlook to 2.3% and sharply cuts Argentina’s]]> Globally, the Fund forecasts growth of 3.1% in 2026 and 3.4% in 2027, while global inflation would rise to 4.7% this year, driven by energy and food The International Monetary Fund has lowered its 2026 growth forecast for Latin America and the Caribbean to 2.3%, a tenth of a point less than in July, and sharply cut Argentina’s, from 3.5% to 2.1%. Chile and Uruguay are also among the region’s largest downward revisions, according to the World Economic Outlook presented on Monday in Bangkok, during the annual meetings of the Fund and the World Bank.

]]> Tue, 13 Oct 2026 06:19:00 GMT <![CDATA[A magnitude 7.7 earthquake shakes Panama]]> The epicentre was about 14 kilometres southwest of Pitaloza Arriba, a sparsely populated area near the Pacific coast some 240 kilometres from the capital, at shallow depth A magnitude 7.7 earthquake shook Panama on Friday at 12:56 local time, centred on the Azuero peninsula in Herrera province, according to the US Geological Survey. Panamanian authorities have not so far confirmed any casualties, though inspections are continuing and they have not ruled out injuries or people trapped. Damage to buildings was reported in several provinces.

]]> Fri, 09 Oct 2026 22:38:00 GMT