
Five members of the SafeLane demining team operating in the Falkland Islands were involved in a road traffic incident on December 21. John Hare of Safelane Global told Penguin News the vehicle was the second in a convoy of three.

Uruguayan authorities seized a record haul of 4.4 tons of cocaine at the port of Montevideo in what the navy described on Friday as “the biggest blow to drug trafficking in the country's history.”

Ms. Faye O’Connor OBE has been appointed Her Majesty’s Ambassador to Uruguay in succession to Mr. Ian Duddy who will be transferring to another Diplomatic Service appointment. Ms. O’Connor will take up her appointment in August 2020.

Uruguayan president Tabare Vazquez clinical studies of the oncologic treatment he is undergoing are satisfactory with no current evidence of the illness. He will continue with periodic controls, keeping to his normal activities in government
![Uruguayan Air Force Colonel Leonardo Blengini agreed: [it] is a very complicated area to say that the plane is afloat, even if it managed to ditch.](/data/cache/noticias/73635/260x165/0a1a-84-1.jpg)
No progress has been reported by Wednesday afternoon in the search for the missing Chilean Air Force (FACh) Lockheed C-130 Hercules transport aircraft with which all radio contact was lost at 6.13 p.m. Monday.

Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro said on Thursday that Mercosur trade block needs to hurry up and implement agreements the group has negotiated.

Brazil on Thursday handed over the six-month rotating presidency of the Mercosur trade bloc (Southern Common Market) to Paraguay. During a ceremony at the bloc's 55th summit in Bento Goncalves, Brazil's president Jair Bolsonaro expressed confidence in his Paraguayan counterpart Mario Abdo Benitez and his leadership skills.

The South American four-nation trade bloc Mercosur began a tense meeting on Wednesday reeling from US steel and aluminium tariffs and a spat between its two biggest members. Foreign ministers of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay opened the two-day meeting in the southern Brazilian town of Bento Goncalves, paving the way for a head of state summit on Thursday.

Mercosur faces a tense future, the president-elect of Uruguay said on Monday, referring to a diplomatic spat between regional heavyweight economies Brazil and Argentina. Brazil’s right-wing leader Jair Bolsonaro and Argentina’s incoming leader, left-leaning Peronist Alberto Fernandez, have sparred openly.

This Sunday, December first members of the HMS Ajax and River Plate Veterans leave for Chile, Uruguay and Argentina to recall events of the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the River Plate, 13 December 1939.