Latin America

Americans in Puerto Rico can’t vote for US president. Their anger at Trump is shaping the race

Residents say a speaker calling Puerto Rico garbage before a packed Donald Trump rally in New York was the latest humiliation for an island territory that has long suffered from mistreatment.

Thousands of soldiers fence off a Salvadoran neighborhood in pursuit of gang remnants

Slight progress in global biodiversity protection efforts but some species decline, new reports find

Uruguay’s presidential runoff will be tight. But with rivals in agreement, it’s no nail-biter

Catholic bishops call for authorities to step up against violence in southern Mexico

Brazil fines meatpacking companies, including giant JBS, for buying illegally raised cattle

Brazil’s environmental agency levied $64 million in fines against 23 meatpacking and their suppliers companies for buying and selling cattle raised illegally on deforested land in the Amazon.

Voters in Brazil’s largest city reelect mayor, who detaches from Bolsonaro after tumultuous campaign

Voters in Brazil’s biggest city of Sao Paulo have reelected mayor Ricardo Nunes following a tumultuous campaign that pitted him against a leftist ally of President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

Bolivia’s former President Evo Morales claims his car was shot at in attempted assassination

Former President Evo Morales of Bolivia claims he survived an assassination attempt on Sunday after unidentified men opened fire on his car.

A car rams into a crowd outside a cathedral in Mexico and injures 16

Local authorities in Mexico say a car rammed into a crowd outside a cathedral and injured at least 16 people Saturday night.

Uruguay, one of Latin America’s strongest democracies, heads to a runoff between two moderates

The leading contenders in Uruguay’s presidential election say voters in the small South American nation had sent the race to a run-off in November.

Gang coalition in Haiti spreads violence to Port-au-Prince neighborhood, setting fire to homes

A gang coalition has reinforced its attacks on one of the few communities in Haiti’s capital not under control of criminal groups, seeking to take it over.

Bus in Mexico crashes after colliding with trailer that detached from truck killing 24

Mexican authorities say a bus tipped over in central Mexico after colliding with a trailer that detached from a truck transporting corn, killing 24 people and injuring five.

French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe orders a curfew a day after a strike prompted a blackout

The government of the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe has ordered a curfew, a day after a strike by workers left 370,000 people in darkness for nearly 24 hours.

In Ecuador, power-dependent patients wait in anguish as the government imposes hours-long blackouts

The first time electricity went off at night, Linda Vidal went into panic mode. The 52-year-old Ecuadorian woman has relied on an electricity-powered oxygen concentrator to breathe properly since she was diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma and a chronic respiratory disease.

US airline temporarily suspends flights to Haiti’s capital after UN helicopter hit by gunfire

At least one U.S. airline has temporarily canceled flights to Haiti’s capital after gang members opened fire and hit a U.N. helicopter flying near the country’s main airport.

A violent start to the term of Mexico’s new president raises questions about strategy, the army

Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum, in just over three weeks in office, has inherited a whirlwind of violence that many say was set up by her predecessor’s policy of not confronting drug cartels and using the army for law-enforcement.

Ecuador expands power cuts to 14 hours a day due to drought

Ecuador has announced an increase in daily power cuts as the severe drought impacting the nation keeps lowering the levels of water for the key hydroelectric plants, the source of more than 70% of the country’s electricity.

Blackout hits French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe as striking workers shut down power

Workers on strike have shut down power across the French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe and left its more than 370,000 inhabitants without electricity.

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.

The dark sky over an urban park in central Mexico attracts stargazers who worry it might not last

As night descended in an ecological park in central Mexico, tiny stars appeared in the sky one by one, aligning into constellations.

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

Hurricane Kristy has strengthened into a Category 5 storm. Forecasters say the major hurricane is expected to remain far from land as it churns in the Pacific Ocean and rapidly weakens over the coming days.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.