AP Year in Pictures: A vibrant Latin America and Caribbean

Dec 26, 2022, 8:57 PM | Updated: Dec 27, 2022, 12:06 pm

A resident comforts a wounded man as he is placed in the back of a truck after a police operation targeting a criminal group that resulted in multiple deaths, in the Complexo do Alemao favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

(AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

Emanuel Sanchez works to remove mud from inside his flooded home in Las Tejerias, Venezuela, on Oct. 9, 2022. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Girls carry a dying sheep amid an ongoing drought in the Cconchaccota community of the Apurimac region in Peru, on Nov. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Relatives and friends grieve during a wake for cousins Jair Valencia, Misael Olivares, and Yovani Valencia, who died of heat and dehydration in a locked trailer-truck abandoned by smugglers in the U.S., during a wake in San Marcos Atexquilapan, Veracruz state, Mexico, on July 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Felix Marquez)

A boat is loaded with fish to be transported to a processing ship, in San Raimundo settlement lake, Carauari, Brazil, on Sept. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Pamela dos Santos Pereira, a 33-year-old mother of six children, stands in her home's doorway holding her one-month-old baby Joao, flanked by her 6-year-old son Issac and 4-year-old daughter Debora, in Brasiliandia, one of Sao Paulo's poorest neighborhoods, in Brazil, on Sept. 29, 2022. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

Flamengo soccer fans see their team off as it arrives by bus to the international airport to fly to Ecuador for the Copa Libertadores final, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on Oct. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

People watch a plume of smoke rise from the Matanzas supertanker base where a deadly fire started during a thunderstorm the night before in Matanzas, Cuba, on Aug. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Men who were detained under a state of exception, are transported in a livestock trailer to a detention center in Soyapango, El Salvador, on Oct. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Captain Lionel Messi looks up during a homecoming parade for the Argentine soccer team that won the World Cup tournament against France, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on Dec. 20, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Brazil's President Jair Bolsonaro, center, poses for a selfie with a supporter as he campaigns for reelection at the rural workers' settlement New Jerusalem, in Brasilia, Brazil, on Oct. 24, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Workers clean oil from Cavero beach in Ventanilla, Callao, Peru, on Jan. 18, 2022. The Peruvian Civil Defense Institute said the eruption of an undersea volcano in Tonga created high waves that moved a ship loading oil into La Pampilla refinery, causing the oil to spill. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

A demonstrator is engulfed in flames from a petrol bomb that was thrown at a police vehicle during protests marking the anniversary of the coup that toppled President Salvador Allende and brought dictator General Augusto Pinochet to power 49 years ago, in Santiago, Chile, on Sept. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)

A skateboarder dressed as a ghost walks past soccer players while trick-or-treating, in Panama City, Friday, Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Arnulfo Franco)

A woman performs with flags during a protest to commemorate International Women's Day, in Asuncion, Paraguay, on March 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Denis Hooker trains his race horse named Pereque in the sea near the shore of San Andres Island in Colombia, on Nov. 11, 2022. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

People work to lower a heavy, wooden cross from a hilltop to carry it to a church as part of celebrations marking the day of the Holy Cross, in the Santa Cruz Xochitpec neighborhood of Mexico City, on May 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Firefighters wait for water to help fight a fire in the low income Laguna Verde neighborhood populated mostly by migrants, in Iquique, Chile, on Jan. 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Ignacio Munoz)

A youth suffering cholera symptoms is helped upon arrival at a clinic run by Doctors Without Borders in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 27, 2022. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Clergy attend the funeral Mass for Claudio Hummes, the Brazilian Catholic cardinal who inspired Pope Francis to pick his name after the 2013 conclave, at the Cathedral in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on July 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

Protesters arrive at the Plaza de Mayo to demand higher salaries and more jobs, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Victor R. Caivano)

A teacher lays out rain-soaked books to air dry on the grounds of a school that was heavily damaged by Hurricane Ian in La Coloma, in the province of Pinar del Rio, Cuba, on Oct. 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Newlyweds Daniela Figueroa and Ricardo Torres stand in an embrace as they take in a sunrise peeking through moai statues while their tour guide makes a photo of them, on Ahu Tongariki, Rapa Nui, or Easter Island, Chile, on Nov. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Chuwie, who was injured by high voltage wiring, holds on to a chair in the home of Juan and Haydee Rodriguez, who have transformed their home into a sloth rescue and rehabilitation center in San Antonio, on the outskirt of Caracas, Venezuela, on March 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

Anti-government coca farmers walk towards the capital, to demand the closure of a parallel market that is promoted by a group related to the government, on the outskirts of La Paz, Bolivia, on Sept. 7, 2022. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Mercedes driver George Russell, of Britain, takes a selfie with fans after winning the Brazilian Formula One Grand Prix, at the Interlagos race track in Sao Paulo, Brazil, on Nov. 13, 2022. (AP Photo/Marcelo Chello)

Children pose for a photo inside a giant soap bubble during spring holidays, in Montevideo, Uruguay, on Sept. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Liusba Grajales, left, puts makeup on her daughter Ainhoa as her partner Lisset Diaz Vallejo gets ready as they prepare to get married, one of the first same-sex couples to make the decision to get legally married in Cuba following the new Family Code, in Santa Clara, Cuba, on Oct. 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco)

A farm worker rests on his employer's cow during the Rural Society's annual exposition, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Police officers lean against a wall in pain after they were injured by an explosive device thrown by protesters during clashes outside of Mexico's Attorney General's Office in Mexico City, on Sept. 22, 2022. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

A demonstrator holds onto an umbrella surrounded by clouds of smoke during clashes with people protesting the government's agreement with the International Monetary Fund to refinance some $45 billion in debt, as legislators prepare to vote on a law to ratify the agreement, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on March 10, 2022. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

A Pataxo Indigenous woman smokes a traditional pipe during the Meeting of the First Peoples' ceremony at the 18th annual Free Land Indigenous Camp in Brasilia, Brazil, on April 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A horse pulls a buggy with passengers through a street flooded by heavy rains, in Havana, Cuba, on June 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

A man carries a dog rescued from a residential area destroyed by mudslides in Petropolis, Brazil, on Feb. 16, 2022. (AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo)

A line on a wall marks the mud level reached inside a home a day after a rain-weakened hillside collapsed and brought waves of mud over homes and a sports field, in the La Gasca neighborhood of Quito, Ecuador, on Feb. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

Relatives carry the coffin with the remains of professional clown Joselin "Chispita" Chacon Lobo, who disappeared for almost two months and was found buried in a clandestine site, before the start of her funeral procession in Amatitlan, Guatemala, on July 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

Emperor Adonildes da Cunha, right center, and Queen Nilda dos Santos, attend a celebration during the culmination of the week-long pilgrimage for the patron saint, Our Lady of Abadia, in the rural area of Cavalcante, in Goias state, Brazil, on Aug. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

A woman dressed as a "Catrina", poses for tourists in Mexico City's main square, the Zocalo, as part of the Day of the Dead festivities, on Oct. 28, 2022. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte)

Dancers perform the traditional "Diablada," or Dance of the Devils, during Carnival in Oruro, Bolivia, on Feb. 26, 2022. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

A protester carries a piece of wood simulating a weapon during a protest demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Ariel Henry, in the Petion-Ville area of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, on Oct. 3, 2022. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

Members of the Nazarene brotherhood sit in a living room as they wait to take part in a Good Friday procession in Zipaquira, Colombia, on April 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Ivan Valencia)

A police officer tries to prevent an anti-government protester from pulling the hair of a woman who is part of group that appeared to show their support for the government during a march of healthcare workers critical of the government, in La Paz, Bolivia, on July 21, 2022. (AP Photo/Juan Karita)

Migrants wait along a border wall after crossing from Mexico, near Yuma, Ariz., on Aug. 23, 2022. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

A woman lifts a child from a muddied path as Ecuadorian migrants walk across the Darien Gap from Colombia into Panama hoping to reach the U.S., on Oct. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Children play on a dirt road in the hilly Catia neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 2, 2022. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

The best images taken in 2022 by Associated Press photographers in Latin America and the Caribbean revealed the reality of migration, poverty and violence, but they also showcased the region’s intense, vibrant and colorful daily life.

Latin American countries faced growing inequality as a result of the post-pandemic global economic crisis, aggravated by the effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Weather took its toll, with heavy rains overflowing rivers and unleashing mudslides that buried lives and homes in Venezuela and Ecuador.

There was no respite from violence in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, where poor residents are often caught in fighting between criminals and police. In Haiti, protests are a near-daily occurrence amid a never-ending political crisis and a growing terror from fighting among rival gangs. In El Salvador, the government cracked down while seeking to control street gangs.

Thousands of families pushed by the economic crisis or the violence crossed the jungles, deserts and rivers of the continent, usually hoping to find opportunity in the U.S. Fifty-one of them lost their dreams and lives when they were abandoned inside a packed tractor-trailer in Texas.

Citizen anger flared in Argentina in March, then Chile, Bolivia and Mexico in September and Haiti in October. With poverty rising, leftists won presidential elections in Colombia and Brazil. Instability gripped Peru after lawmakers ousted the president when he tried to dissolve Congress before an impeachment vote.

Still, amid the troubles, color, joy and traditions remained a part of life in the region.

People wore yellow flowers to honor lost loved ones in the traditional observance of the Day of the Dead in Mexico. The ” king and queen of Cavalcante ” were crowned in rural Brazil celebrating Our Lady of the Abbey. The procession of Nazarenes from Zipaquirá brought a solemn beauty in Colombia.

Newlyweds welcomed the dawn standing before the moai statues on Rapa Nui, as Chile’s Easter Island is also known. Feminists cheered International Women’s Day in Uruguay. Two women beamed after being married in Cuba under the island’s new family code.

And for many in the region, the year closed with raucous good celebrations over Argentina’s World Cup victory over France, including millions who filled the streets of Buenos Aires to welcome the national team home.