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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, May 10th 2025 - 01:37 UTC

Uruguay

  • Saturday, January 18th 2025 - 10:28 UTC

    Uruguay: Mrs. Heber's murder suspect granted house arrest

    Luis Alberto Heber pushed for the case regarding his mother's murder to be reopened

    Uruguay's Judiciary Friday granted house arrest to Deputy Commissioner Ricardo Zabala, who has been indicted for the 1978 murder of Cecilia Fontana, mother of former Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber. As per Judge Verónica Ester Pena Molina's decision, Zabala was moved to a seaside resort residence citing health problems. He is the only person prosecuted for that crime. The case has resurfaced in recent years.

  • Friday, January 17th 2025 - 21:02 UTC

    Uruguay makes payment to Spanish shipyard for construction of two OPVs

    The deal for the OPVs with Cardama has had its ups and downs but it appears now to have advanced to the next stage

    The Uruguayan Government this week made a US$ 8.4 million payment to the Spanish shipyard Cardama as the first installment for the construction of two new ocean patrol vessels (OPVs) agreed upon in July last year. The process has since been questioned and one Uruguayan Navy Admiral even retired from active duty amid the controversy.

  • Friday, January 17th 2025 - 08:57 UTC

    Argentina to blend Montevideo diplomatic missions into one

    The measure seeks to cut annual spending by about 2 million US dollars

    Argentine President Javier Milei's “chainsaw” policies reached the South American country's diplomatic efforts: After recalling Ambassador Martín García Moritán from Uruguay citing “service reasons,” Buenos Aires announced it would be unifying its presence in Montevideo under one single Ambassador who would also be representing the country before the Latin American Integration Association (ALADI) and the Southern Common Market (Mercosur).

  • Thursday, January 16th 2025 - 10:14 UTC

    Argentina recalls Ambassador in Montevideo due to “service reasons”

    García Moritán had been appointed in February last year under then-Foreign Minister Diana Mondino

    Ambassador Martín García Moritán has been removed from the Argentine mission in the Uruguayan capital and ordered back to Buenos Aires, according to Presidential Decree 29/2025 published Wednesday in the Official Gazette. The measure was adopted barely over a month before President-elect Yamandú Orsi's March 1 inauguration. The career diplomat had been appointed on Feb. 19, 2024.

  • Tuesday, January 14th 2025 - 21:37 UTC

    Uruguayan lawmakers call Venezuela's gov't “a dictatorship”

    “We want to open a space for negotiation,” National Party Senator Graciela Bianchi stressed

    Uruguay's Parliament passed Tuesday a unilateral declaration from the ruling Multicolor coalition stating that “no one can deny” there is a dictatorship in Venezuela. The opposition Broad Front (Frente Amplio - FA) of President-elect Yamandú Orsi, who is to take office on March 1, submitted a text of its own excluding the word “dictatorship” and hence no consensus. However, the FA reckoned that “the Venezuelan government has deepened its distancing from the institutional framework” and that the absence of audits in the electoral process “erodes the legitimacy of the result and questions any democratic transition.”

  • Monday, January 13th 2025 - 21:32 UTC

    Uruguay's President-elect to undergo cataract surgery

    Orsi's two operations will be performed Tuesday and Thursday in Montevideo

    Uruguay's President-elect Yamandú Orsi will undergo cataract surgery in the next few days, due to which he will be pausing his transition agenda, it was reported Monday in Montevideo. According to Orsi's press team, the former Mayor (Governor) of Canelones had been postponing these procedures until it was decided to have them performed between Tuesday and Thursday. Orsi is expected to recover soon, so as to resume his activities leading up to his March 1 inauguration.

  • Friday, January 10th 2025 - 10:32 UTC

    Uruguay advises against traveling to Venezuela

    Montevideo insisted that this was just a recommendation and that travelers may go anywhere at their own risk

    Uruguay's Foreign Ministry issued a statement this week advising against traveling to Venezuela, where “arbitrary detentions and kidnappings” by authorities and paramilitary groups are known to have been occurring. There is even a Uruguayan national among those missing, Montevideo insisted.

  • Thursday, January 9th 2025 - 10:55 UTC

    José Mujica announces the progress of his disease: “I am doomed, this is as far as I've come”

    Mujica faces the end of his life with a clear message: “I am doomed. This is as far as I've come”.

    Former Uruguayan President José Mujica (2010-2015) revealed that the esophageal cancer he was diagnosed with in April 2023 has spread to his liver, which he considers an end point in his medical treatment. “I am dying. I don't want to suffer in vain, my body can't take any more,” he declared in an interview published Thursday by the weekly Búsqueda.

  • Wednesday, January 8th 2025 - 21:37 UTC

    Uruguay to launch new Covid-19 vaccination campaign next week

    Only patients needing more than one dose will need a written prescription

    Uruguayan health authorities will launch a vaccination campaign against Covid-19 starting next Monday using Pfizer's Comirnaty JN.1 immunizer adapted to the Omicron JN.1 subvariant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, it was announced in Montevideo.

  • Tuesday, January 7th 2025 - 21:07 UTC

    Uruguayan future lawmakers hope to get euthanasia legalized shortly

    In Preve's view, legal euthanasia is a much-needed alternative and “a right for many people who are in quite complicated situations”

    The incoming administration of Uruguay's future President Yamandú Orsi taking office on March 1 may see the euthanasia bill passed, it was reported this week in Montevideo. The initiative is currently stalled in the Senate.