Pacíficos actores, ávidos espectadores. El Mercurio de Valparaíso y la cobertura de la Guerra del Paraguay (1864-1870)

Abstract

This article examines the characteristics and mutations of the editorial line of El Mercurio of Valparaiso regarding the Paraguayan War (1864-1870). In its analysis, it seeks to focus on three central aspects that guided the newspaper's programmatic discourse in relation to the trans-Andean conflict: 1) the critical evaluation of Chilean diplomatic management in the Rio de la Plata; 2) an intense dialectic battle with a sector of the press in Buenos Aires and 3) the progressive creation of a favorable account of the Paraguayan cause. From this approach, the study reveals not only the position of a media with a wide reach in the local and international advertising scene, but also its understanding the role of the press as a space for building public opinion around the armed confrontations in the Americas during the 1860s.