AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

June 28-July 4, 2024

Hurricane Beryl powered through the Caribbean on its way to Mexico. Guatemala marked its army's 153rd anniversary. Campaigns opened in Venezuela with political rallies ahead of the July 28 election. Brazil soccer fans watched their team play in the Copa America tournament from Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro.

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 Jon Orbach based in Mexico City.

Follow AP visual journalism:

AP Images blog: http://apimagesblog.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/apnews

X: http://twitter.com/AP_Images

A young Brazil fan watches his team's Copa America Group D soccer match against Colombia on a screen for fans on Copacabana beach in Rio de Janeiro, Tuesday, July 2, 2024. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva tosses a pumpkin in the air, accompanied by first lady Rosangela da Silva known as Janja, during the Harvest Plan presentation at the Planalto Presidential Palace, in Brasilia, Brazil, July 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, left, and presidential candidate Edmundo Gonzalez flash victory hand signs during a rally launching the official presidential campaign season, in Caracas, Venezuela, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A participant smiles during the annual Gay Pride parade marking the culmination of LGBTQ+ Pride month, in Mexico City, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Aurea Del Rosario)

Venezuelan migrant boys play with a toy gun, crafted from square tubing and rope, at a shelter in Assis, Brazil, June 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

Uruguayan former President Jose Mujica casts his vote at a polling station during primary elections in Montevideo, Uruguay, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Silverio, a twelve-day-old white rhino, runs next to his mother Hannah during his presentation at the Buin Zoo in Santiago, Chile, July 2, 2024. The baby rhino's birth is the third of this endangered species born at the Buin. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Venezuela migrant Naiber Zerpa holds her son Mathias Marquez as they arrive at a temporary camp after walking across the Darien Gap from Colombia, in Lajas Blancas, Panama, Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

A reveler is silhouetted against a pair of angel wings as they help a trans performer with a costume during a Gay Pride parade marking the culmination of LGBTQ+ Pride month, in Asuncion, Paraguay, June 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Soldiers ask a tourist to evacuate Mirador beach ahead of Hurricane Beryl's expected arrival in Tulum, Mexico, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Homes destroyed by Hurricane Beryl lie in Clifton, Union Island, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Thursday, July 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Lucanus Ollivierre)

Fishermen pull a boat damaged by Hurricane Beryl back to the dock at the Bridgetown Fisheries in Barbados, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

MATAGORDA, Texas (AP) — Tropical Storm Beryl unleashed heavy rains and powerful winds across the state of Texas on Monday, knocking out power to more than 2 million homes and businesses and flooding streets with fast-rising waters as first responders raced to rescue stranded residents.

Beryl had already cut a deadly path through parts of Mexico and the Caribbean before making a turn and later sweeping ashore as a Category 1 hurricane in Texas early Monday. At least two people were killed. The National Hurricane Center said damaging winds and flash flooding will continue as Beryl continues pushing inland.

More than 2 million homes and businesses in the Houston area were without power, CenterPoint Energy officials said. Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country.

“We haven’t really slept,” said Rosenberg resident Eva Costancio as she gazed at a large tree that had fallen across power lines in her neighborhood. She said she had been without electricity for about four hours and worried that food in her refrigerator would be spoiled.

“We are struggling to have food and losing that food would be difficult,” she said.

High waters quickly began to close streets. In flood-weary Houston, where previous storms had already washed out neighborhoods, television stations on Monday broadcast the dramatic rescue of a man who had climbed to the roof of his pickup truck after it got trapped in fast-flowing waters. Emergency crews used an extension ladder from a fire truck to drop him a life preserver and a tether before moving him to dry land.

Houston was under a flash-flood warning for most of the morning as heavy rain continued to soak the city. Flood warnings also were in effect across a wide stretch of the Texas coast, where a powerful storm surge pushed water ashore, and further inland as heavy rain continued to fall. Suni Jugueta, a captain with the police department in the Houston suburb of Rosenberg, said emergency officials made three water rescues overnight.

Rosenberg police also noted that one of their high-water vehicles was hit by a falling tree while returning from a rescue, and they urged people to stay off the roads. Video footage showed heavy street flooding in the barrier island city of Galveston, and

Two people were killed after trees fell on their houses: a man in the Houston suburb of Humble and a woman in Harris County, authorities said. Hundreds of trees fell in the county, crushing vehicles and damaging homes, said Precinct 4 County Constable Mark Herman.

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is acting governor while Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is out of the country, warned that flooding could last for days and the storm continues to dump rain onto already saturated ground.

“This is not a one-day event,” Patrick said.

Beryl and the widespread power outages were just the latest weather blows for Houston, where nearly 1 million people lost power when deadly storms ripped through the area in May, killed eight people and brought much of the city to a standstill.

Texas officials warned people along the entire coastline to prepare for possible flooding, heavy rain and wind. Several coastal counties called for voluntary evacuations in low-lying areas. Local officials also banned beach camping and urged tourists traveling on the Fourth of July holiday weekend to move recreational vehicles from coastal parks.

Tornadoes and flash flooding were also possible in eastern Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas, the hurricane center said.

In the Texas coastal city of Freeport, Patti Richardson said she was riding out the the storm in her 123-year-old house.

“We are sitting in the middle of it. It sounds like we are in a train station, it’s that loud and has been about four hours. We’re just hoping everything holds together,” Richardson said. “You can feel the house shaking. ... It’s freaky.”

More than 1,000 flights have been canceled at Houston’s two airports, according to tracking data from FlightAware.

The earliest storm to develop into a Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic, Beryl caused at least 11 deaths as it passed through the Caribbean on its way to Texas. The storm ripped off doors, windows and roofs with devastating winds and storm surge fueled by the Atlantic’s record warmth.

Three times during its one week of life, Beryl has gained 35 mph (56 kph) in wind speed in 24 hours or less, the official weather service definition of rapid intensification.

Beryl’s explosive growth into an unprecedented early whopper of a storm indicates the hot water of the Atlantic and Caribbean and what the Atlantic hurricane belt can expect for the rest of the storm season, experts said.

In Louisiana, heavy bands of rain are expected all day Monday and “the risk is going to be for that heavy rainfall and potential for flash flooding,” National Weather Service meteorologist Donald Jones said in a Monday morning Facebook Live briefing.

Meteorologists in Louisiana are watching for lingering rainbands, which could drop copious amounts of rain wherever they materialize, as well as “quick, spin-up tornadoes,” said Donald Jones, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Lake Charles, Louisiana.

“It’s just a matter of exactly where that’s going to be,” Jones said. “That’s very difficult to predict more than maybe an hour or so in advance.”

Beryl battered Mexico as a Category 2 hurricane last week, toppling trees but causing no injuries or deaths before weakening to a tropical storm as it moved across the Yucatan Peninsula.

Before hitting Mexico, Beryl wrought destruction in Jamaica, Barbados and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Three people were reported dead in Grenada, three in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, three in Venezuela and two in Jamaica.

Valerie Gonzalez reported from McAllen, Texas. Associated Press reporters Corey Williams in Detroit, Valerie Gonzales in McAllen, Texas, Margery A. Beck in Omaha, Nebraska, Hannah Schoenbaum in Salt Lake City and Julie Walker in New York contributed.

An oil tanker heads out to open water as surfers take advantage of waves ahead of Hurricane Beryl's arrival in Port Aransas, Texas, Saturday, July 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Sherry Cothron and Jimmy May board windows as they prepare for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

A hotel guest navigates the halls after power was lost due to Hurricane Beryl, Monday, July 8, 2024, in Bay City, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Ed Campbell works to secure his boat as he prepares for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. Although Beryl remained a tropical storm Sunday as it churned toward Texas, it threatened to potentially regain hurricane strength in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. Beryl is hurtling across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico on a collision course with Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Jimmy May boards windows as he prepares for Hurricane Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Workers with the Galveston Island Park Board of Trustees remove lifeguard towers from the beach near 57th Street in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl churns toward the Texas Coast. The storm is expected to make landfall near Matagorda Bay early Monday morning. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

A message for Beryl is left on a boarded up business, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Rock Port, Texas, as the storm moves closer to the Texas coast. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

People watch waves crash into the 37th Street rock groin in Galveston, Texas on Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl churns toward the Texas Coast. (Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

Doan Vu, right, and Luan Nguyen, left, board up windows as they prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Luan Nguyen boards up windows as he helps prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall. Landfall was expected early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Doan Vu, left, and Luan Nguyen, right, board up windows as they prepare for Beryl's arrival, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Palaciios, Texas. Texas officials are telling coastal residents to expect power outages and flooding as Beryl was forecast to regain hurricane strength before making landfall early Monday. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Clyde George, left, and his son Chris George board up their home ahead of the arrival of Tropical Storm Beryl on Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O'Connor, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)

A man walks his dog near a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Leo Cardin walks past a Confederate Artillery Battery display as he watches storm clouds roll in ahead of Beryl, Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port Lavaca, Texas. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)

Richard Alcazar stacks sandbags in front of the door at Atmosphere The Salon & Beyond in Galveston, Texas, Sunday, July 7, 2024, as Tropical Storm Beryl heads toward the Texas coast. Alcazar, a barber at the salon, prepared the doors for any possible flooding from the storm. ( Jennifer Reynolds/The Galveston County Daily News via AP)

Blake Braun loads his dog Dolly into his family's vehicle as outer bands from Tropical Storm Beryl begin to hit the coast Sunday, July 7, 2024, in Port O'Connor, Texas. (Jon Shapley/Houston Chronicle via AP)