El Mercurio

The newspaper's logo

The newspaper was based in Santiago from 1902 to 1983

El Mercurio is a Chilean daily newspaper with national distribution and a member of the Grupo de Diarios América .

history

El Mercurio was founded in Valparaíso in 1827 by Pedro Félix Vicuña; the edition of the newspaper for the capital Santiago de Chile first appeared on June 1, 1900. The version El Mercurio de Valparaíso is the oldest Spanish-language newspaper in the world that is still published . The paper with a conservative basic orientation is considered the leading daily newspaper (main medium ) of the South American country. In 1880 it was acquired by Agustín Edwards Ross and has been linked to the Edwards family ever since .

The newspaper pioneered several technical innovations in both writing, typesetting and printing. It currently owns one of the most modern printing plants in South America , which was inaugurated in the mid-1980s.

Alignment

The editorial line was - at least under the direction of Agustín Edwards Eastman - extremely conservative, while the large competitor newspaper La Tercera writes more left-wing.

This situation became particularly evident in the bitter opposition of the Mercurio to the Salvador Allende government . Accordingly, the paper then showed a markedly positive attitude towards the military regime of Augusto Pinochet . It was later revealed that El Mercurio had received extensive financial support from the CIA . The US secret service praised the newspaper in a memorandum and certified it to have played an important role in the preparation of Pinochet's coup . (see also US intervention in Chile )

After the Transición , the paper took a moderately critical stance towards the various heads of government from the center-left alliance Concertación de Partidos por la Democracia .

publishing company

The El Mercurio SAP publishing house , which publishes the newspaper, is one of the major owners of other print media in the country, along with its competitor COPESA. El Mercurio SAP owns the following 21 newspapers:

El Mercurio de Santiago (national distribution)
Las Últimas Noticias (national distribution)
La Segunda de Santiago (evening newspaper in the greater Santiago area)
La Estrella de Arica
La Estrella de Iquique
El Mercurio de Antofagasta
El Mercurio de Calama
La Estrella del Norte de Antofagasta
La Estrella del Loa
La Prensa de Tocopilla
El Mercurio de Valparaíso
La Estrella de Valparaíso
El Líder de San Antonio
El Líder de Melipilla
El Diario Austral de Temuco
El Diario Austral de Valdivia
El Diario Austral de Osorno
El Llanquihue de Puerto Montt
El Renacer de Arauco
El Renacer de Angol
La Estrella de Chiloe

Individual evidence

↑ Grupo de Diarios América - Quenes somos ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
^ Deutschlandradio: Mediale Kreuzzüge , March 17, 2009
^ Covert Action in Chile (1963-1973) US Senate, Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities , Staff Report (section Covert Action During the Allende Years, 1970-1973.)

Web links

Commons : El Mercurio - collection of images, videos and audio files

[1] Grupo de Diarios América - Quenes somos ( Memento of the original from February 9, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2

[2] Deutschlandradio: Mediale Kreuzzüge , March 17, 2009

[3] Covert Action in Chile (1963-1973) US Senate, Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities , Staff Report (section Covert Action During the Allende Years, 1970-1973.)