Top photos from Latin America and the Caribbean
June 20-26, 2025
Chileans got dressed up for a Gay Pride parade, cricket players from Australia and West Indies faced off on the Caribbean island of Barbados and Indigenous people in Bolivia and Ecuador marked the Southern Hemisphere's winter solstice.
Colombians who pick up trash to sell as recycled material blanketed Bogota's main plaza with plastic bottles to protest decreasing income and tougher conditions for scavengers, and Venezuelans carried Iranian flags at a demonstration organized by the government against Israel's war on Iran. Tampa Bay Rays' shortstop Wander Franco was found guilty of sexual abuse and received a 2-year suspended sentence.
This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from Latin America and the Caribbean.
The selection was curated by AP photo editor Leslie Mazoch based in Mexico City.
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New York Times
37 minutes ago
- New York Times
Richard Carapaz ruled out of Tour de France with stomach infection
Richard Carapaz will not race at this year's Tour de France due to a gastrointestinal infection, the Ecuadorian has confirmed. Carapaz, who was crowned the Tour's king of the mountains and won the overall combativity award in 2024, will not compete after symptoms of abdominal pain and a high fever while training for the race in Ecuador. Advertisement He underwent several rounds of medical tests that revealed the infection, which was confirmed by additional scans and imaging, and is currently receiving antibiotics and medication. It comes less than a month after the 32-year-old record a podium finish at the Giro d'Italia. Carapaz announced on his Instagram account that with 'great sadness' he would be missing the Tour, which starts on July 5. A post shared by Richard Carapaz (@richardcarapaz) 'Not the best news, but health always comes first,' he said. 'Thank you all for your messages and support.' Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of Carapaz's team EF Education-EasyPost, said he was 'gutted' for the Ecuadorian in a statement. 'He came out of the Giro with amazing form and was setting career-high power numbers in training,' Vaughters said. 'He sacrificed a lot to get to that level, so the timing really couldn't be worse. 'We know how much the Tour means to him, so to lose him this close to the race is a real blow. He's a champion in every sense, and knowing him, I have no doubt this setback will only motivate him to come back stronger.' Carapaz has recorded six podium finishes across cycling's three Grand Tours; he won the Giro in 2019, finished second in 2022 and also recorded a second-place finish at the Vuelta de Espana in 2020. His best finish in the Tour de France was third in 2021. In July 2021, he won the gold medal in the road race at the 2020 Summer Olympics, becoming the first Ecuadorian cyclist to win a medal and only the second Ecuadorian in any sport to win a gold medal at the Olympic Games. Carapaz is now targeting a return in the Vuelta, which starts in Spain on August 23 and will last for three weeks. 'His goal? Win the Vuelta,' said his team. (Massimo Valicchia/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Serbia's police clashes with anti-government protesters
BELGRADE (Reuters) -Serbian police on Saturday evening clashed with anti-government protesters demanding snap elections and an end to the 12-year rule of President Aleksandar Vucic. Police deployed scores of officers in riot gear around government buildings, parliament and nearby Pionirski Park, where throngs of Vucic's backers from across the country gathered in a counter-protest. After the protest ended at around 10 p.m. (2000 GMT), some protesters who wanted to confront Vucic's backers threw bottles, rocks and flares at the police, who used force to disperse them in several locations across Belgrade's city centre. The protesters shouted: "Keep the shields down," calling on the police to stop intervening. Police detained several dozen protesters, while six police officers were reported injured in clashes, Dragan Vasiljevic, the director of police, told a press conference late on Saturday. Vucic said protesters attempted to topple the state. "They (protesters) wanted to topple Serbia, and they have failed," he wrote on his Instagram page. In a statement, students accused the government of an escalation of tensions. "They (authorities) ... opted for violence and repression against the people. Every radicalisation of the situation is their responsibility," students wrote on the X social network. In a statement, Ivica Dacic, the interior minister, said police will act to maintain public order. "The police will take all measures to establish public order and peace, ... and apply all its powers to repel attacks, and arrest all those who attacked the police," Dacic said. Months of protests across the country, including university shutdowns, have rattled Vucic, a populist, whose second term ends in 2027, when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled. Vucic's opponents accuse him and his allies of ties to organised crime, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms, something they deny. The protesters, who want the government to heed their demands by the end of the protest, have pledged non-violence. Vucic has previously refused snap elections. His Progressive Party-led coalition holds 156 of 250 parliamentary seats. Earlier on Saturday, Vucic said unspecified "foreign powers" were behind the protest. He said police should be restrained, but warned that violence will not be tolerated. 'The country will be defended, and thugs will face justice,' he told reporters in Belgrade. Sladjana Lojanovic, 37, a farmer from the town of Sid in the north, said she came to support students. "The institutions have been usurped and ... there is a lot of corruption. Elections are the solution, but I don't think he (Vucic) will want to go peacefully," she told Reuters. In the days ahead of the protest, police arrested about a dozen anti-government activists, charging them with undermining the constitution and terrorism. All denied the charges. Protests by students, opposition, teachers, workers and farmers began last December after 16 people died on November 1 in a Novi Sad railway station roof collapse. Protesters blame corruption for the disaster. The Belgrade rally coincides with St. Vitus Day, venerated by most Serbs, which marks the 1389 Battle of Kosovo with Ottoman Turks.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Police clash with anti-government protesters calling for early elections in Serbia
Riot police fired tear gas at thousands of anti-government protesters in Serbia's capital on Saturday. The major rally in Belgrade against Serbia's populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, was called to back a demand for an early parliamentary election. The protest by tens of thousands was held after nearly eight months of persistent demonstrations led by Serbia's university students that have rattled Vucic's firm grip on power in the Balkan country. The huge crowd chanted 'We want elections!' as they filled the capital's central Slavija Square and several blocks around it, with many unable to reach the venue. Tensions were high before and during the gathering. Riot police deployed around government buildings and close to a camp of Vucic's loyalists in central Belgrade. Skirmishes erupted between riot officers and groups of protesters near the camp. 'Elections are a clear way out of the social crisis caused by the deeds of the government, which is undoubtedly against the interests of their own people,' said one of the students, who didn't give her name while giving a speech on a stage to the crowd. 'Today, on June 28, 2025, we declare the current authorities illegitimate.' At the end of the official part of the rally, students told the crowd to 'take freedom into your own hands.' University students have been a key force behind nationwide anti-corruption demonstrations that started after a renovated rail station canopy collapsed, killing 16 people on Nov. 1. Many blamed the concrete roof crash on rampant government corruption and negligence in state infrastructure projects, leading to recurring mass protests. 'We are here today because we cannot take it any more,' Darko Kovacevic said. 'This has been going on for too long. We are mired in corruption.' Vucic and his right-wing Serbian Progressive Party have repeatedly refused the demand for an early vote and accused protesters of planning to spur violence on orders from abroad, which they didn't specify. Vucic's authorities have launched a crackdown on Serbia's striking universities and other opponents, while increasing pressure on independent media as they tried to curb the demonstrations. While numbers have shrunk in recent weeks, the massive showing for Saturday's anti-Vucic rally suggested that the resolve persists, despite relentless pressure and after nearly eight months of almost daily protests. Serbian police, which is firmly controlled by Vucic's government, said that 36,000 people were present at the start of the protest on Saturday. Saturday marks St. Vitus Day, a religious holiday and the date when Serbs mark a 14th-century battle against Ottoman Turks in Kosovo that was the start of hundreds of years of Turkish rule, holding symbolic importance. In their speeches, some of the speakers at the student rally on Saturday evoked the theme, which was also used to fuel Serbian nationalism in the 1990s that later led to the incitement of ethnic wars following the breakup of the former Yugoslavia. Hours before the student-led rally, Vucic's party bused in scores of its own supporters to Belgrade from other parts of the country, many wearing T-shirts reading: 'We won't give up Serbia.' They were joining a camp of Vucic's loyalists in central Belgrade where they have been staying in tents since mid-March. In a show of business as usual, Vucic handed out presidential awards in the capital to people he deemed worthy, including artists and journalists. 'People need not worry – the state will be defended and thugs brought to justice,' Vucic told reporters on Saturday. Serbian presidential and parliamentary elections are due in 2027. Earlier this week, police arrested several people accused of allegedly plotting to overthrow the government and banned entry into the country, without explanation, to several people from Croatia and a theater director from Montenegro. Serbia's railway company halted train service over an alleged bomb threat in what critics said was an apparent bid to prevent people from traveling to Belgrade for the rally. Authorities made similar moves back in March, before what was the biggest ever anti-government protest in the Balkan country, which drew hundreds of thousands of people. Vucic's loyalists then set up a camp in a park outside his office, which still stands. The otherwise peaceful gathering on March 15 came to an abrupt end when part of the crowd suddenly scattered in panic, triggering allegations that authorities used a sonic weapon against peaceful protesters – an accusation officials have denied. Vucic, a former extreme nationalist, has become increasingly authoritarian since coming to power more than a decade ago. Though he formally says he wants Serbia to join the European Union, critics say Vucic has stifled democratic freedoms as he strengthened ties with Russia and China.
