International
Uruguay goes to the polls this Sunday to elect president and legislators
About 2.7 million citizens will go to the polls this Sunday to vote for the president and legislators of Uruguay for the period 2025-2030, as well as to pronounce on two plebiscites.
At 8:00 local time (11:00 GMT) voting centers throughout the country will open and voters will be able to vote until 19:30 local time (22:30 GMT), although this could be extended by an hour in case there are still people lining up at the polling stations.
In this instance, in which voting is secret and mandatory, as set by the National Constitution, eleven political parties will seek the Presidency.
The candidates for the Presidency of Uruguay
These are the Broad Front (Yamandú Orsi), the National Party (Álvaro Delgado), the Colorado Party (Andrés Ojeda), the Open Council (Guido Manini Ríos), the Independent Party (Pablo Mieres) and the Radical Intransigent Environmental Party (César Vega).
Also, Sovereign Identity (Gustavo Salle), Popular Assembly (Walter Martínez), the Environmental Constitutional Party (Eduardo Lust), the Party for the Necessary Changes (Guillermo Franchi) and Republican Advance (Martín Pérez Banchero).
To become the successor of the current president, Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, any of the candidates must get more than 50% of the valid votes. Otherwise, the two most voted will advance to a second round, which will take place on Sunday, November 24.
The formation of the Parliament will be defined
Beyond this, this Sunday’s instance will define the formation of Parliament for the period 2025-2030.
Each party will present in the elections its different lists made up of its candidates to integrate the Chamber of Senators (30 members) plus the Vice President of the Republic) and the Chamber of Deputies (99 members).
On the other hand, voters will vote on two plebiscites: one on social security and another on night raids.
Promoted by the PIT-CNT trade union center and supported by social groups, the first of these seeks to change the social security regime of Uruguay, which was changed by law in 2023.
The plebiscites
The amendment proposes – among other things – the equivalence of retirements and pensions to the national minimum wage, in addition to the possibility that both men and women can access retirement at 60 years of age instead of 65.
In turn, it seeks to eliminate the administrators of social security savings funds so that the Social Security system is managed exclusively by the State.
The second seeks to allow raids at night, which are currently prohibited by article 11 of the National Constitution. He emphasizes that the home is a sacred inviolable and that at night no one will be able to enter it without the consent of their boss.
With the campaign closures carried out days ago, Uruguay of about 3.4 million inhabitants is currently in electoral ban.
Prohibitions
Since Friday, October 25, the parties cannot carry out acts of proselytist propaganda, as indicated by Law 16,019, which was promulgated in 1989.
On the other hand, from this Saturday the sale of alcohol is prohibited, which cannot be carried out until the voting circuits are closed.
This Sunday, around 21:30 local time (00:30 GMT), the consultants are expected to announce their first projections of the results, while the Electoral Court will begin to upload them on its official website as they are sent from the polling stations.
After being known, the candidates will participate in events in the places where they will wait for them, while in the capital of the country there are already areas of celebrations.
International
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In New York City, demonstrators of all ages rallied in front of the Public Library near Trump Tower, holding signs accusing the president of undermining democratic institutions and judicial independence.
Many protesters also criticized Trump’s hardline immigration policies, including mass deportations and raids targeting undocumented migrants.
“Democracy is in grave danger,” said Kathy Valyi, 73, the daughter of Holocaust survivors. She told AFP that the stories her parents shared about Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1930s Germany “are happening here now.”
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The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on Friday asked two federal judges to block the U.S. government under President Donald Trump from deporting any Venezuelan nationals detained in North Texas under a rarely used 18th-century wartime law, arguing that immigration officials appear to be moving forward with deportations despite Supreme Court-imposed limitations.
The ACLU has already filed lawsuits to stop the deportation of two Venezuelan men held at the Bluebonnet Detention Center, challenging the application of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The organization is now seeking a broader court order that would prevent the deportation of any immigrant in the region under that law.
In an emergency filing early Friday, the ACLU warned that immigration authorities were accusing other Venezuelan detainees of being members of the Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal gang. These accusations, the ACLU argues, are being used to justify deportations under the wartime statute.
The Alien Enemies Act has only been invoked three times in U.S. history — most notably during World War II to detain Japanese-American civilians in internment camps. The Trump administration has claimed the law allows them to swiftly remove individuals identified as gang members, regardless of their immigration status.
The ACLU, together with Democracy Forward, filed legal actions aiming to suspend all deportations carried out under the law. Although the U.S. Supreme Court recently allowed deportations to resume, it unanimously ruled that they could only proceed if detainees are given a chance to present their cases in court and are granted “a reasonable amount of time” to challenge their pending removal.
International
Dominican ‘False Hero’ Arrested for Faking Role in Nightclub Collapse That Killed 231
A man identified as Rafael Rosario Mota falsely claimed to have rescued 12 people from the collapse of the Jet Set nightclub in Santo Domingo—a tragedy that left 231 people dead—but he was never at the scene.
Intelligence agents in the Dominican Republic arrested the 32-year-old man for pretending to be a hero who saved lives during the catastrophic incident, authorities announced.
Rosario Mota had been charging for media interviews in which he falsely claimed to have pulled survivors from the rubble after the nightclub’s roof collapsed in the early hours of April 8, during a concert by merengue singer Rubby Pérez, who was among those killed.
“He was never at the scene of the tragedy,” the police stated. The arrest took place just after he finished another interview on a digital platform, where he repeated his fabricated story in exchange for money as part of a “media tour” filled with manipulated information and invented testimonies.
“False hero!” read a message shared on the police force’s Instagram account alongside a short video of the suspect, in which he apologized: “I did it because I was paid. I ask forgiveness from the public and the authorities.”
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