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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, June 30th 2026 - 12:53 UTC

United States

  • Sunday, June 7th 2026 - 21:17 UTC

    Trump's 'Shield of the Americas' reshapes Central America's war on drug cartels

    Governments aligned with the United States are adopting tough-on-crime rhetoric and requesting technical assistance

    Donald Trump's return to the White House and the launch of the “Shield of the Americas” —a militarized anti-narcotics coalition that excludes Mexico and that Washington unveiled in Miami in March— have reshaped the security landscape in Central America. The pressure, intensified after the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, has pushed trafficking routes into international waters and forced uneven responses across the isthmus, according to a report by EL PAÍS.

  • Friday, June 5th 2026 - 23:12 UTC

    US sanctions Cuba's president Díaz-Canel and inner circle in push for regime change

    The executive order, signed on May 1, also authorizes secondary sanctions against foreign companies and financial institutions that deal with key sectors of the Cuban economy

    The United States sanctioned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and his closest circle on Thursday, in a fresh escalation of Washington's pressure on the island with the stated goal of forcing a change of regime after 67 years of communist government. Havana rejected the move at once.

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 10:55 UTC

    Lula pushes back on US tariffs, says Brazil is the one running a trade deficit

    “The US surplus over the past 15 years was 415 billion dollars. So we were the ones who should have raised taxes, not them,” Lula said

    Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva on Tuesday rejected the US government's argument that Brazil engages in “unreasonable” practices in the bilateral relationship, arguing that it is Washington that runs a trade surplus with his country. If anyone should impose tariffs, he said, it would be Brazil.º

  • Thursday, June 4th 2026 - 10:40 UTC

    US proposes forced-labor tariffs on 60 economies, with Brazil and China facing 12.5%

    The initiative seeks to replace the tariffs the Supreme Court struck down in February, when it found that President Donald Trump had exceeded his authority by using an economic emergency law

    The US government proposed tariffs of up to 12.5% on 60 economies —59 countries and the 27-nation European Union— for failing to ban or effectively enforce the prohibition on imports of goods made with forced labor. The measure, announced Tuesday night by Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, relies on Section 301 of the 1974 Trade Act and is the White House's most ambitious step yet to rebuild its tariff policy.

  • Tuesday, June 2nd 2026 - 15:48 UTC

    Israel and Hezbollah keep firing despite Trump's announcement of an end to hostilities

    Netanyahu emerged battered, at home and abroad, from his intention the previous day to launch a wave of bombings on Beirut, canceled on Trump's orders

    A day after US President Donald Trump announced an agreement to end the military clashes in Lebanon, the fighting continued on Tuesday with little change from previous days. Israel is limiting itself to not striking Beirut, but its bombings killed 12 people in various parts of the country. Hezbollah, for its part, kept firing, though it stopped aiming at the Israeli towns farthest from the border that it had recently been targeting.

  • Friday, May 29th 2026 - 23:32 UTC

    Trump labels PCC and Comando Vermelho as terrorist organizations and Brazil fears intervention

    Lula da Silva accused Flávio Bolsonaro, his most likely rival in October's presidential elections, of having “betrayed the homeland by going to the United States to ask for an intervention in Brazil”

    Brazil's government on Friday issued an official note rejecting the decision adopted by the administration of US President Donald Trump to designate Brazil's two main organized crime groups, the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and the Comando Vermelho, as terrorist organizations. “We will not accept the use of arbitrary measures from abroad as a pretext to attack our sovereignty and our economy,” the statement warned, while avoiding explicit reference to the US administration. The measure, announced on Thursday, adds both organizations to a list that includes Al Qaeda, the Islamic State, the main Mexican cartels, and the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua.

  • Monday, May 25th 2026 - 22:11 UTC

    United States strikes southern Iran targets “in self-defense” amid Doha peace talks

    Trump defended the peace negotiations on his Truth Social network in response to growing criticism from Republican sectors

    The US Armed Forces struck military targets in southern Iran on Monday “in self-defense,” according to a statement by US Central Command, in an episode that coincides with the arrival of Iranian negotiators in Qatar for peace talks mediated by the Qatari government. The operation also overlaps with the order issued by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to the Israeli army to “step on the accelerator” in its offensive against the Shiite militia Hezbollah in Lebanon, despite parallel negotiations between Tel Aviv and Beirut.

  • Monday, May 25th 2026 - 21:58 UTC

    2026 World Cup drives Airbnb supply surge in Mexican host cities and consolidates real estate firms' control

    In all three cities, the main hosts are companies linked to the real estate sector and urban developers, rather than individuals

    The approach of the 2026 World Cup, which Mexico will co-host alongside the United States and Canada, has accelerated the mass conversion of traditional housing into short-term tourist rentals in the three Mexican cities hosting the tournament, with a sharp rise of real estate firms as the dominant market actor. According to data from the specialized firm AirDNA cited by the newspaper El País, the supply of properties on Airbnb and similar platforms grew in Mexico City by 30% between 2023 and 2026, rising from 18,000 to close to 24,000 units. In the Guadalajara metropolitan area, growth reached 50%, to 9,760 properties, and in the Monterrey metropolitan area it doubled, to 7,274 units.

  • Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:51 UTC

    Trump administration anticipates imminent agreement with Iran to reopen Strait of Hormuz

    Trump declared the agreement practically closed by saying “the details will be announced soon,” although Iranian authorities denied the version of the immediate reopening

    The administration of US President Donald Trump took it for granted on Sunday that within the coming days it will be able to announce an agreement with Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, a maritime route through which approximately 20% of the world's oil flows and which has remained practically closed since the start of the US and Israeli offensive against the Islamic Republic on 28 February. Three months after the attack that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei —replaced by his son Mojtaba— Washington and Tehran are negotiating a two-phase scheme that would ease pressure on the global economy without immediately resolving the underlying nuclear questions.

  • Monday, May 25th 2026 - 00:44 UTC

    Paraguayan Prosecutor's Office maps Marset drug route from Bolivia to European ports

    Marset was captured in March 2026 in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia

    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.