Latin America

Sixty-three years ago, President John F. Kennedy single-handedly brought the world back from the brink of nuclear war by staring down Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev over the Cuban missile crisis. At least, so goes a standard U.S.-centric interpretation of events.

Deploying an aircraft carrier is a major escalation of military power in a region that has already seen an unusually large U.S. military buildup in the Caribbean Sea and the waters off Venezuela.

In less than two months, President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth say the U.S. military has killed at least 37 people in strikes against drug-smuggling vessels off the coast of South America.

For the first time, one of the 27 people killed in U.S. airstrikes on suspected drug vessels has been publicly identified.

Costa Rica’s President Rodrigo Chaves has further restricted access to abortion, limiting it to situations when the mother’s life is in danger. The country’s previous regulations also allowed abortions if a pregnancy posed a threat to the mother’s health.

Uruguay’s senate has passed a law decriminalizing euthanasia, putting the South American nation among a handful of other countries where seriously ill patients can legally obtain help to end their lives.

A U.S. indictment accusing Guyana’s soon-to-be legislative opposition leader of money laundering and other corruption charges won't stand in the way of the billionaire businessman serving in the South American nation’s parliament.

Cuban teenagers Fabio and Diego Abreu are part of a new wave of musicians revitalizing Cuba’s music scene. They fill a void left by established artists who have emigrated during one of the island's worst economic crises in decades.

For decades across Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. drug enforcement officials have tried to cut off narcotics trafficking by intercepting boats, trucks and even horses laden with drugs and arresting the smugglers. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said those efforts are not bold enough.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Air Force Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have arrived in Puerto Rico as the U.S. steps up its military operations against drug cartels in the Caribbean.

A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from ending temporary legal protections that have granted more than 1 million people from Haiti and Venezuela the right to live and work in the United States.

President Trump has ordered military action against Latin American drug cartels and has threatened a new tariff. President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico has pushed back.