is a Chilean broadsheet newspaper published in Valparaíso and Santiago. Its Valparaíso edition, founded on 12 September 1827, is regarded as the oldest continuously published Spanish-language newspaper in the world, while the more prominent Santiago edition, founded on 1 June 1900 by Agustín Edwards Mac Clure, is Chile's paper of record. Long nicknamed el decano de la prensa chilena ("the dean of the Chilean press"), it holds a right-wing, conservative and economically liberal editorial position.
The paper's history is most notably marked by its opposition to the government of Salvador Allende: declassified U.S. documents show it received covert CIA and, at times, personal White House funding between 1970 and 1973 to campaign against Allende, and historians have credited it with playing a significant role in setting the stage for the 1973 military coup that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power, after which it maintained sustained editorial support for his dictatorship. Opposition to the paper had already produced the protest slogan " miente" ("El Mercurio lies") during the university reform movement of the 1960s, which was later revived against the military government's university appointees in the 1980s.
is owned by El Mercurio S.A.P. (Sociedad Anónima Periodística), under the Edwards family since Agustín Edwards Ross acquired the Valparaíso paper in 1880 and now led by Cristián Edwards del Río; the company also operates 19 regional dailies and 32 radio stations across Chile. Its print edition is organized into numbered cuerpos covering news, business, national affairs, and the arts, alongside long-running magazine supplements and the EMOL news portal.
History
Founding and early ownership The Valparaíso edition of was founded by Pedro Félix Vicuña (Benjamín Vicuña Mackenna's father) on 12 September 1827, and was later acquired by Agustín Edwards Ross in 1880. The Santiago edition was founded by Agustín Edwards Mac Clure, son of Edwards Ross, on 1 June 1900. In 1942 Edwards Mac Clure died and his son Agustín Edwards Budge took over as president. When Edwards Budge died in 1956, his son, Agustín Edwards Eastman, took control of the company. Edwards Eastman died in 2017, leaving the company in hands of his son Cristián Edwards del Río.
At its founding, the Santiago paper presented its editorial approach as a respectful and measured forum for debating the country's most consequential political, economic, administrative, and international matters, deliberately steering clear of partisan struggles in favor of moderating extreme passions that might otherwise divide Chileans. By 1970, U.S. diplomatic reporting described as occupying a position in Chile roughly comparable to that of The New York Times in the United States, with a circulation of around 120,000 copies on weekdays and 300,000 on Sundays, considerably larger than any of the country's smaller party-affiliated papers.
During the 1950s, El Mercurio planned to introduce television into Chile, applying for licenses in Santiago and Valparaíso, expected to launch by 1958.
Conflict with the Allende government (1970–1973) clashed repeatedly with the Salvador Allende government, which attempted at various points to expropriate the paper, influence its administrative and editorial staffing, and restrict its news and editorial content, producing a climate of sustained tension between the two sides. In January 1971, tax inspectors and government lawyers searched the offices of the paper and its printing house, Editorial Lord Cochrane, seizing account books as part of a purported investigation into tax offenses.
In 1972, the government sought to bring the paper manufacturer Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), then Chile's principal domestic producer of newsprint, under state control. Because depended on CMPC for paper, the proposed takeover became a major issue for the newspaper and its opponents. A public campaign opposing the move adopted the slogan "¡La Papelera, No!" ("Hands off the paper mill"). The government also imposed price controls on paper, which CMPC and its supporters argued left the company unable to cover rapidly rising costs and contributed to substantial losses. The dispute continued until the military government substantially liberalized the price system after the September 1973 coup. Pro-government legislators and press also circulated allegations, later found to be unsubstantiated after a judicial investigation, that the paper's staff was stockpiling weapons.
's facilities and staff endured repeated attacks during this period, including thrown stones and bombings, further hardening the paper's opposition to the government. A court ordered the paper suspended for six days after it published a statement by Sergio Onofre Jarpa, president of the National Party, accusing the government of violating the constitution and the rule of law. On 22 June 1973, a judicial order under the State Internal Security Law halted the paper's circulation entirely for a day, the first such stoppage in its history. Journalists who worked at the paper at the time recalled internal factional tensions over the direction of the newsroom, alongside broad staff support for management in the face of the attacks on the paper's offices. CIA funding received funds from the CIA in the early 1970s to undermine the Socialist government of Salvador Allende, acting as a mouthpiece for anti-Allende propaganda.
Declassified documents that detail US interventions in Chile revealed the paper's role,Covert Action in Chile 1963-1973. , released by the U.S. Department of State; printed version: United States Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Respect to Intelligence Activities, Staff Report, Covert Action in Chile (1963-1973) (Washington D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975). and the extent of the paper's cooperation with the CIA:
Support reached to the highest levels of the US government. When the paper requested significant funds for covert support in September 1971, "...in a rare example of presidential micromanagement of a covert operation, Nixon personally authorized the $700,000—and more if necessary—in covert funds to ." (p. 93)
The CIA's Church Committee later confirmed that the agency maintained a broad global network of paid contacts, including at foreign newspapers, that it used both to gather intelligence and to shape opinion abroad through covert propaganda, and estimated that such disinformation efforts cost American taxpayers roughly $265 million a year. In February 1976, then-CIA director George H. W. Bush announced that, effective immediately, the agency would no longer enter into paid or contractual relationships with journalists accredited to U.S. news organizations, though the policy left in place the agency's continued reliance on the voluntary, unpaid cooperation of American reporters.
Role in 1973 coup d'état The paper played "a significant role in setting the stage for the military coup" which took place on 11 September 1973, bringing General Augusto Pinochet to power. It mobilized opponents of President Salvador Allende and the gremialismo movement to be active in destabilization from the street, while also advocating the neoliberal policies of the yet-to-come Chicago Boys.O'Brien, Phil and Jackie Roddick. Chile: The Pinochet Decade: The Rise and Fall of the Chicago Boys. London: Latin American Bureau (Research and Action) Ltd, 1983. Under the ensuing Pinochet dictatorship, the paper maintained a sustained pattern of support for the military government, and it was not until well after the publication of the 1991 Rettig Report that it stopped describing victims of human-rights violations as merely "alleged missing detainees" rather than as confirmed victims of state repression.
Opposition to the paper's editorial line was memorialized in photographs, taken up first during the university reform movement of the 1960s and 1970s and later in protests against the university rectors appointed by the military dictatorship in the 1980s, of banners reading "Chileno: miente" ("Chilean: El Mercurio lies").
1988 to the present Former journalists of have been crucial in the creation of various new newspapers in Chile including Diario Financiero in 1988,Meza Antognoni, Roberto (2012). History of El Diario Financiero de Chile. Santiago de Chile: Ediciones Radio Universidad de Chile. El Líbero in 2014, and Ex-Ante in 2020.22 January 2021. ¿Quiénes están detrás del medio digital Ex-Ante? ilustrado.cl
Construction of the paper's current headquarters on Avenida Santa María began in 1980, and its editorial and printing operations relocated there in December 1984 from its former offices at the corner of Morandé and Compañía streets in downtown Santiago. On 31 August 1983 the paper published its first infographic, a diagram illustrating the assassination attempt on General Carol Urzúa. In 1986 the paper launched its Club de Lectores ("Readers' Club") loyalty program for subscribers.
's building in Valparaíso was set on fire by protesters in October 2019 during the 2019 Chilean protests sparked by rise in transportation cost.
During the 2022 constitutional referendum held under President Gabriel Boric, backed the "Rechazo" ("Reject") option, which ultimately prevailed with roughly 62 percent of the vote.
Recent developments In the mid-2020s, and its main rival, La Tercera, struggled with declining print circulation and reader reluctance to pay for online news subscriptions, a trend affecting the wider Chilean newspaper market. Both papers drew criticism from Chile's National Consumer Service () after subscribers complained it was significantly harder to cancel a digital subscription than to sign up for one, prompting the regulator to press both companies to simplify their cancellation processes.
Editorial stance Since its founding, 's editorial line has been broadly conservative, a stance reflected across the newspaper's history, including its opposition to the 1907 general strike that culminated in the Santa María School massacre in Iquique, its opposition to Salvador Allende's 1970 candidacy and subsequent government, its sustained support for the Pinochet dictatorship, and, more recently, its backing of the "Rechazo" option in the 2022 constitutional referendum.
El Mercurio SAP owns the Chilean afternoon daily newspaper La Segunda, which during the military dictatorship was used as a means of government propaganda and published news with sensationalist and confrontational language.
Structure and contents The print edition of is organized into several numbered sections, or cuerpos: Cuerpo A – Portada: the front section, carrying the day's top headlines along with international news, letters and opinion, editorials, society news, culture, education, and science and technology coverage. Cuerpo B – Economía y Negocios ("Economy and Business"): financial and business news, including classified financial advertisements on weekdays. Cuerpo C – Nacional ("National"): news from Santiago and the regions, obituaries, culture and entertainment, politics, film and television listings, and services. Cuerpo D – Reportajes ("Reports"): interviews and feature reporting on social and political figures, published Sundays. Cuerpo E – Artes y Letras ("Arts and Letters"): culture, literature, philosophy, and film, published Sundays. Cuerpo I – Innovación ("Innovation"): entrepreneurship, innovation, civil society, and sustainable development, published Thursdays since 31 May 2019. A dedicated sports section runs daily, circulating on Mondays as El Diario del Deporte.