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MercoPress, en Español

Montevideo, December 21st 2025 - 16:51 UTC

Uruguay

  • Thursday, March 25th 2021 - 10:34 UTC

    Uruguayan Air Force helicopter carrying Pfizer vaccines crashes: total losses

    The Pfizer doses that were being transported to Rocha in a helicopter – similar to the one in the photo – were lost, as a result of a fire

    An Uruguay’s Air Force helicopter carrying two boxes of Pfizer vaccines against Covid-19 crashed on Thursday morning in the Eastern state of Rocha and the 3-member crew was taken to a local hospital with non-serious injuries. The accident occurred due to a “mechanical failure,” the Ministry of Defense reported and resulted in a fire that provoked total losses of the aircraft and the shipment it was transporting.

  • Wednesday, March 24th 2021 - 09:55 UTC

    Uruguay shuts schools and announces measures to prevent health system collapse

    “We are not in favor of total lockdown,” said Lacalle.

    The government of Uruguay has ordered all schools and public offices to remain closed at least until the end of Tourism (Easter) Week, President Luis Lacalle Pou announced Tuesday evening during a press conference after a long Cabinet Meeting with Ministers.

  • Tuesday, March 23rd 2021 - 10:42 UTC

    Uruguayan government to debate measures amid record Covid-19 cases and political pressures

    President Luis Lacalle Pou called this Tuesday to an extraordinary meeting of the Council of Ministers to evaluate new measures to stop the exponential growth of coronavirus cases

    The Uruguayan government will discuss this Tuesday a radical reduction of mobility in the midst of a new wave of Covid-19 cases. This Monday, the highest number of new cases was detected, with almost 2,700 confirmed cases and a positivity rate of 18%, and the community spread of the Brazillian P-1 variant of the virus was confirmed.

  • Monday, March 22nd 2021 - 13:44 UTC

    Covid-19: Health situation in Uruguay worsens amid successful vaccination campaign

    The National Academy of Medicine warned that Uruguay “is heading towards an epidemiological situation without control” (Photo: Sebastián Astorga)

    Although a few weeks ago we talked about Uruguay as a milestone in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, with very few daily cases and a lower mortality rate than any other country in the region, the country of 3.5 million inhabitants surpassed this Sunday the 13 thousand active cases after several record days of daily positives. Scientific and medical societies are demanding measures to stop the spread of the virus despite the fact that 1 out of 10 Uruguayans have already received the first dose of the vaccine – Pfizer or Coronavac – against the disease.

  • Monday, March 15th 2021 - 09:50 UTC

    Mercosur 26th March summit to be held on line, because of sanitary situation in the region

    Uruguayan president Luis Lacalle Pou with his Argentine counterpart Alberto Fernandez

    The Mercosur face-to-face presidential summit scheduled for 26th March originally planned to take place in Argentina that currently holds the rotating chair of the block, will be held online because of the sanitary situation in the region.

  • Friday, March 12th 2021 - 10:08 UTC

    Argentina promises Bolivia's incorporation to Mercosur for the next bloc's summit

    Bolivia's accession as a full member of Mercosur has been in process for ten years, but is stuck in the Brazilian Congress.

    Argentina pledged on Thursday to manage Bolivia's entry into Mercosur, after both countries relaunched their trade relationship during the official visit of the Argentine Foreign Minister, Felipe Solá, who sees the need to approve the full entry of the Andean country at the next Mercosur summit to be held on March 26.

  • Wednesday, March 10th 2021 - 08:49 UTC

    International Women's Day was particularly defiant and even violent in Latin America

    Thousands of women also marched in Buenos Aires, Argentina, which has seen a wave of femicide that has claimed on average one life per day so far in 2021.

    Tens of thousands on Monday defied coronavirus restrictions, gathering worldwide on International Women's Day to denounce gender violence and inequalities.

  • Friday, March 5th 2021 - 08:57 UTC

    Dramatic Covid-19 situation in Southern Brazil threatens Rivera, Uruguay

    Uruguay is very concerned, and threatened, by the situation in the city of Rivera, bordering the Brazilian city of Santana do Livramento, Rio Grande do Sul state, where the number of infections is alarming and continues to grow, while the Intensive Care Centers in the capital Porto Alegre are saturated.

  • Friday, March 5th 2021 - 08:30 UTC

    American Airlines cancels routes from the US to Montevideo and Santiago

    The airline has now announced its routes from the USA to Montevideo, Uruguay and Santiago, Chile will also be stopped

    American Airlines has extended the suspension and cancellation of numerous international flights including to regions that have not yet been severely impacted by the coronavirus, such as Latin America. The Fort-Worth-based airline says on 10 March that it is cutting summer international capacity by about 10% and April domestic capacity by 7.5% in response to decreasing demand.

  • Thursday, March 4th 2021 - 18:21 UTC

    Uruguay: Pepe Mujica says the pandemic helped Lacalle Pou’s government

    Former president Pepe Mujica (2010-2015) said that Uruguay “had the opportunity to start vaccinating three months ago and we let it pass because we were confident or for ideological reasons”

    The former Uruguayan president José “Pepe” Mujica criticized the government of Luis Lacalle Pou and assured that the Covid-19 pandemic “helped” to improve his image. ”The pandemic is white (in reference to the color of the ruling party)“ and ”brought a big help“ to the government, said the former president in a radial interview on Wednesday. ”He has no responsibility, but he positioned himself well in the situation and knew how to take advantage of it”, he assured.