Latin America

Gangs in Haiti open fire and hit a UN helicopter midair as violence surges

Gangs in Haiti have opened fire and hit a U.N. helicopter, forcing it to land in Port-au-Prince in the latest attack in the country’s capital as violence surges once again.

A car bomb explodes outside a police station in western Mexico, wounding 3 officers

Argentine police raid the Buenos Aires hotel where One Direction’s Liam Payne died

Citizen astronomers rally to protect Mexico’s night sky for the next generation

Hurricane Kristy strengthens into a Category 5 storm in the Pacific Ocean

In Colombia, Amazon River’s extreme drought falls hard on Indigenous communities

The severe drought of the Amazon River has caused Indigenous communities who live beside it to struggle for food, water and simply getting from one place to another.

AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

Oct. 18-24, 2024

Millions of Cubans were left without electricity for days after the nation’s energy grid went down when one of the island’s major power plants failed.

A Venezuelan media tycoon is charged in a bribery conspiracy in Florida

A Venezuelan media tycoon has been charged in federal court in Florida for what authorities say was his role in laundering money in a conspiracy to siphon more than $1 billion from Venezuela’s state oil company.

Venezuelan opposition leaders win the EU’s top human rights prize

Venezuelan opposition leaders Maria Corina Machado and Edmundo González Urrutia have won the European Union’s top human rights honor, the Sakharov Prize.

Putin ends BRICS summit that sought to expand Russia’s global clout but was shadowed by Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin has presided at the closing session of a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, hailing its role as a counterbalance to the West.

Gunman kills 3 people in southern Brazil during hours-long shootout

Authorities in southern Brazil say a 45-year-old man barricaded himself in a house and killed his father, brother and a police officer in an hours-long shootout before he himself was fatally shot.

Molotov cocktail explodes in a Chilean high school, injuring at least 35

Authorities say a homemade firebomb has exploded inside a public high school in Chile and ignited a blaze that injured at least 35 people.

Armed activists launch new protests in Martinique over high living costs

Government officials in Martinique say protesters with automatic weapons targeted police and firefighters during a fresh round of violent demonstrations in the French Caribbean island.

Peruvian theologian the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, father of influential liberation theology, has died

Peruvian theologian the Rev. Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of the social justice-centered liberation theology that the Vatican once criticized for its Marxist undercurrents, has died.

Activists challenge colonial-era abortion laws in Antigua and Barbuda

Doctors, nurses and activists in Antigua and Barbuda are fighting a colonial-era law that largely bans abortions, igniting a debate about women’s reproductive rights on the tiny twin-island nation.

Mexican soldiers kill 19 drug cartel suspects and suffer no casualties in Sinaloa state

Mexican army troops have killed 19 suspected drug cartel gunmen in a shootout but suffered no casualties themselves.

Hurricane Kristy strengthens into a Category 4 storm in the Pacific Ocean

Forecasters say Hurricane Kristy has strengthened into a Category 4 storm and is expected to remain away from land as it churns in the Pacific Ocean.

A Brazilian artist uses ash and mud for a massive Sao Paulo mural lamenting climate disasters

Brazilian artist Mundano is presenting a massive street mural in Sao Paulo that uses ash from wildfires and mud from floods to highlight extreme weather events wreaking devastation in the country.

Venezuelan opposition leader urges Colombia’s president to recognize her faction’s electoral victory

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado is urging Colombia’s president to be decisive and recognize her faction’s victory during her country’s contested July presidential election.

Burial held for Catholic priest and Indigenous peace activist killed in southern Mexico

Hundreds of people have turned out for the burial of Catholic priest Marcelo Pérez, an activist for Indigenous peoples and farm laborers who was killed in the southern Mexico state of Chiapas.

Haiti’s Justice Ministry warns of threats against the prime minister and his Cabinet

Haiti’s Justice Ministry has called for a boost in security for Prime Minister Garry Conille and other Cabinet officials in response to unspecified threats that they could be targeted by malicious parties.

Mexico announces food and agriculture plan that could take the country back to the 1980s

Mexico’s new president has announced an agriculture plan that could make the country’s food production and distribution look a lot more like it did in the 1980s.

Cuba fights to come back from a nationwide blackout, then a storm that killed 7

A small town in far eastern Cuba is recovering from flooding that killed at least seven people after Hurricane Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast as a tropical storm with winds and heavy rain.

Shooting at a soccer match in Jamaica leaves 5 dead and several injured

Police in Jamaica say five people were fatally shot and several injured at a soccer match. The shooting occurred in the capital of Kingston late Monday during a friendly game.

Tropical Storm Oscar disintegrates en route to the Bahamas after killing 7 people in Cuba

Tropical Storm Oscar has disintegrated as it heads toward the Bahamas after making landfall in Cuba as a Category 1 hurricane, killing at least seven people.

Panamanians crawl to reach the Black Christ of Portobelo in annual religious pilgrimage

At dawn, pilgrims like Ernesto Troya undertook the hardest stretch of their journey to reach the image of the Black Christ of Portobelo in Panama.

Two plead guilty to murder of former Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Mali

Two men charged in the killing of former Air India bombing suspect Ripudaman Singh Malik have pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in a British Columbia court.

Peru’s ex-president Toledo gets more than 20 years in prison in case linked to corruption scandal

Peru’s former President Alejandro Toledo has been sentenced to 20 years and six months in prison in a case involving Brazilian construction giant Odebrecht, which became synonymous with corruption across Latin America, where it paid millions of dollars in bribes to government officials and others.

Mexican schools have 6 months to ban junk food sales or face heavy fines

Mexican officials say schools have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or face heavy fines.

Venezuela arrests a former oil czar and accuses him of working with the US to undermine the industry

Venezuela’s top prosecutor has announced the arrest of a former oil minister and accused him of working with the U.S. government to undermine the industry that drives the country’s economy.

Police in Haiti battle a gang coalition trying to seize control of the entire capital

Police in Haiti are clashing with gunmen trying to take over one of the few communities in the capital, Port-au-Prince, that is not controlled by gangs.

Tropical Storm Oscar heads toward the Bahamas after dumping rains on eastern Cuba

Tropical Storm Oscar is heading toward the Bahamas after dumping heavy rain across eastern Cuba. Its maximum sustained winds were blowing at 40 mph late Monday as Oscar moved north-northeast at 8 mph.

Cuba fights to come back from a nationwide blackout, then a storm that killed six

A small town in far eastern Cuba is recovering from flooding that killed at least six people after Hurricane Oscar crossed the island’s eastern coast as a tropical storm with winds and heavy rain.

In Mexico’s bloodied Sinaloa state, police and prosecutors conspired to cover up opponent’s killing

Police, prosecutors and forensic examiners in the northern Mexico state of Sinaloa all conspired to cover up the killing of an opponent of the ruling-party state governor, using a blood-stained truck found at the crime scene.

A group of 2,000 migrants in southern Mexico depart for the US weeks before election

A group of about 2,000 migrants has left Mexico’s southern border hoping to reach the country’s north and ultimately the United States.

Brazil’s Lula cancels trip to Russia for BRICS summit after an accident

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has canceled his trip to Russia for a BRICS summit after an accident at home that left him with a cut in the neck.

What to know about the electrical grid failure that plunged Cuba into darkness

A few things to know after millions of people in Cuba were left without electricity for two days when the nation’s electrical grid collapsed.

Haitians leave their homes in several neighborhoods to escape more gang violence in the capital

Gangs have attacked in several neighborhoods of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince, forcing many people to leave their homes after gunfire raged through the night.

Cuba gets some electricity back after major power outage left millions in the dark

Cuba’s government says some electricity has been restored on the island after one of the country’s major power plants failed and left millions without electricity for two days.

UN expands arms embargo on Haiti to all types of arms and ammunition

The U.N. Security Council has voted unanimously to expand the arms embargo in Haiti to all types of weapons and ammunition, expressing grave concern at the extremely high levels of gang violence and criminal activities in the impoverished Caribbean nation.