Thursday, July 2nd 2026 - 09:11 UTC
Kast said that both countries' security “has been undermined by transnational organized crime”
The presidents of Uruguay, Yamandú Orsi, and Chile, José Antonio Kast, agreed to strengthen bilateral cooperation against transnational organized crime, following a meeting held on Wednesday at the Suárez y Reyes presidential residence in Montevideo. In a joint statement, the leaders announced understandings on security, fisheries, Antarctica, the bi-oceanic corridor and economic integration, as part of Kast's official visit to Uruguay.
As a first step, the two governments signed two agreements between their foreign ministries: one on the mutual recognition of digital signatures and another on cooperation between their diplomatic academies. Orsi said that in the coming months new agreements, still being drafted, would be finalized on security and infrastructure. “I am sure that in the coming months we will be closing the security agreement and others related to infrastructure, which we agreed to finish designing,” the Uruguayan leader said, thanking Chile for putting “concrete proposals” on the table.
Security dominated much of the meeting. Kast said that both countries' security “has been undermined by transnational organized crime” and noted that his foreign minister, Francisco Pérez Mackenna, had invited neighboring countries to sign the so-called Santiago Agreement, an initiative promoted by Chilean diplomacy to coordinate the fight against organized crime at a regional level. The Chilean president welcomed Uruguay and Paraguay's willingness to join: “Organized crime can be rooted out of one nation, but it needs the same rules in all nations to end that scourge,” he said.
