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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, August 29th 2026 - 06:01 UTC

Tag: Jose Antonio Kast

  • Wednesday, August 26th 2026 - 08:42 UTC

    Chile debates a state of emergency of up to eight months without congressional approval

    The main point of friction is parliamentary oversight

    José Antonio Kast's government indicated on Tuesday it was willing to amend the constitutional security reform bill it submitted to the Senate on August 17, after the proposal drew objections both from the opposition and from parties within its own coalition.

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  • Tuesday, August 11th 2026 - 09:18 UTC

    Kast rules out backing bill that ties abortion access to hearing the fetal heartbeat

    “It is legitimate for lawmakers to introduce their bills and for a debate to be generated around that, but we are not going to move forward on this matter,” the president said

    Chilean President José Antonio Kast said on Monday that his government would not push forward a bill introduced by lawmakers from his own coalition that would condition access to legal abortion on a woman agreeing to hear the fetus's cardiac activity.

  • Wednesday, August 5th 2026 - 21:37 UTC

    Sixty deputies ask Kast to pardon officers convicted over the 2019 unrest

    Kast wrote that Crespo had been cleared of all charges and that it was confirmed he acted in self-defense, a reading of the ruling that is the president's own

    Sixty Chilean deputies asked President José Antonio Kast on Wednesday to grant individual pardons to members of the Carabineros police force and the armed forces convicted over acts linked to their duties during the protests that began on October 18, 2019.

  • Tuesday, July 21st 2026 - 17:59 UTC

    Chile declares state of catastrophe in the north after storm leaves at least ten dead

    The weather front began on July 15 in the south of the country and moved north, where it hit the desert regions — areas where rainfall of this magnitude is uncommon

    Chile's president, José Antonio Kast, declared on Monday a 30-day constitutional state of catastrophe in the Coquimbo region and the Huasco province, in the Atacama region, in response to the intense storm battering the country's north. According to the government's latest tally, the phenomenon has left at least ten people dead nationwide, four missing, and nearly 100,000 residents cut off by road closures. Authorities warned the toll could rise, as numerous areas remain unreachable.

  • Friday, July 3rd 2026 - 08:55 UTC

    In Uruguay, Kast urges harsher penalties for crime leaders and total prison isolation

    Kast held that security is the main condition for economic development and described organized crime as a “cancer” affecting all of Latin America

    Chile's President José Antonio Kast argued on Wednesday in Montevideo that the region's countries must toughen their laws to combat organized crime, with life sentences for those who lead gangs and a regime of total isolation in prisons to stop them from continuing to operate from behind bars. The president laid out his position after meeting with Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi, as part of an official visit to Uruguay.

  • Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 09:11 UTC

    Uruguay and Chile agree to coordinate against organized crime after an Orsi-Kast summit

    Kast said that both countries' security “has been undermined by transnational organized crime”

    The presidents of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, and Chile, José Antonio Kast, agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation against transnational organized crime, following a meeting held on Wednesday at the Suárez y Reyes presidential residence in Montevideo. In a joint statement, the leaders announced understandings on security, fisheries, Antarctica, the bi-oceanic corridor and economic integration, as part of Kast's official visit to Uruguay.

  • Wednesday, July 1st 2026 - 08:28 UTC

    Mercosur leaders push for a regional security architecture against organized crime

    The security debate unfolded alongside the trade tensions that dominated the summit

    The fight against transnational organized crime emerged as one of the central themes of Mercosur's 68th summit of heads of state, held on Tuesday in the Paraguayan city of Luque, where several leaders called for building a regional security “architecture” with concrete goals and deadlines. The issue ran through the addresses of the bloc's presidents and those of its associated states, at a summit where Paraguay handed over the pro tempore presidency to Uruguay.

  • Monday, June 15th 2026 - 21:35 UTC

    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.”

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 23:06 UTC

    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.

  • Monday, June 1st 2026 - 22:59 UTC

    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.

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