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[Montevideo cements its role as a staging port for Antarctic expeditions]]> The vessels that arrived were the Expedition, Ocean Albatros, Ocean Nova, Sylvia Earle, Ocean Explorer, Seaventure and Sea Spirit, ships with reinforced hulls equipped to sail in polar waters The port of Montevideo welcomed seven polar expedition ships this week at the start of the Antarctic season, reinforcing the Uruguayan capital’s role as a staging point for cruise ships heading to the frozen continent.

]]> Sun, 25 Oct 2026 13:32:00 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[Uruguay signs a US$5.7 billion data centre investment with Spain’s Solaria]]> The project, under a free-trade-zone regime, will allocate US$5.5 billion to the data centres and US$200 million to a 350-megawatt solar plant to supply the complex Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi on Wednesday signed an agreement with Spanish company Solaria Energía y Medio Ambiente to develop a data centre campus of up to 500 megawatts with its own solar generation, a US$5.7 billion investment the government described as the largest in the country’s history. The opposition has demanded explanations about the company’s financial capacity and the jobs the project will create.

]]> Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:52:00 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[Scientific workshop on Illex Squid in Vigo with the participation of Falkland Islands]]> The workshop forms part of an international scientific cooperation process that began with meetings held in Chile and Panama and continued with a scientific gathering in Bangkok Argentine unions linked to the fishing, maritime and port industries have complained bitterly to the International Transport Workers Federation against a workshop on the Shortfin Squid (Illex Argentinus) organized by OPPC3, in Vigo with the suppot of the Sustaianble Fisheries Partnership, and to which Argentina allegedly has not been invited, but it does include the Falkland Islands.

]]> Sat, 03 Oct 2026 17:11:00 GMT <![CDATA[Uruguay ranks third in Latin America for international air passengers per capita]]> Uruguay ranked third in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2025 for international air passengers per inhabitant, according to Airports Council International figures presented in Lima this week, despite its small share of the region's total traffic.

]]> Sat, 03 Oct 2026 09:40:00 GMT <![CDATA[Uruguay's foreign minister separates the "invaded island" from the money extracted from the Falklands]]> The minister said this was the main subject of his conversation with his Argentine counterpart, Pablo Quirno, and denied discussing with him Uruguay's interest in acquiring British ships Uruguay's Foreign Minister Mario Lubetkin argued that the Falklands dispute has changed in nature with oil exploration: one thing, he said, is "the invaded island" and "the fight against colonialism", and another is "when a lot of money is taken from there". His remarks come as Yamandú Orsi's government considers buying two patrol vessels from the Royal Navy, a deal that has already prompted a resolution from twenty deputies of Argentine President Javier Milei's party.

]]> Thu, 01 Oct 2026 09:32:00 GMT <![CDATA[Five shipping lines warn Uruguay the port dispute is damaging its international standing]]> The companies describe a situation of “extreme uncertainty and paralysis” at the specialised container terminal and say that so far in 2026 there have been “more than 35 days of” disruption Five of the main shipping lines operating at the port of Montevideo have warned the Uruguayan government that the labour dispute at the Terminal Cuenca del Plata is causing "severe economic and commercial harm" and has "severely damaged Uruguay's international prestige", in a letter addressed to six ministers.

]]> Tue, 29 Sep 2026 07:17:00 GMT <![CDATA[“The UN has more reason to exist every day”, Uruguay's president said two days after Milei]]> “The UN has more reason to exist every day,” Orsi said, while calling for multilateral institutions that are “more effective, more representative” and closer to people's needs Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi defended the United Nations' relevance and condemned the economic embargo on Cuba before the General Assembly on Thursday, in an address of just under twenty minutes that contrasted with that of his Argentine counterpart, Javier Milei, two days earlier from the same podium.

]]> Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:41:00 GMT