AP Week in Pictures: Latin America and Caribbean

March 14-20, 2025

A woman cries after her friend died from a bullet wound when soldiers fired their guns into the air as a tribute during the funeral of two soldiers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. State oil company employees transport and wield hoses in an effort to mitigate damage from an oil spill in Ecuador. A young supporter of bullfighting demonstrates as Mexico City banned the practice.

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 photographer Ramón Espinosa, based in Havana.

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Venezuelan migrants arriving from Mexico deplane at the Simon Bolivar International Airport in Maiquetia, Venezuela, Thursday, March 20, 2025, after abandoning hopes of reaching the U.S. due to President Trump's crackdown on migration. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos)

A supporter of former President Pedro Castillo protest in front of police guarding the special forces base where a hearing in his rebellion trial is underway in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

A resident walks on a street during a general blackout in Havana, Cuba, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Colombian pop-rock singer Andrea Echeverri of Aterciopelados performs during the 25th edition of the Vive Latino music festival in Mexico City, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Aurea Del Rosario)

People sit outside the planetarium to watch the total lunar eclipse in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

Italy's Marco Bezzecchi of Aprilla Racing Team fall down during the Moto GP race in Termas de Rio Hondo circuit, Argentina, Sunday, March 16, 2025. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Demonstrators hug during a vigil at the Zocalo, Mexico City's main square, Saturday, March 15, 2025, for the victims whose skeletal remains were discovered at a ranch in Jalisco state. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Women attend a spinning class on a hotel building's helipad in Sao Paulo, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Andre Penner)

A young supporter of bullfighting joins a demonstration in support of bullfighting outside Mexico City's Congress where lawmakers are expected to debate its continuation in Mexico City, Tuesday, March 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Ginnette Riquelme)

Workers of the state oil company ride a boat carrying hoses as part of efforts to control an oil spill caused by a mudslide that broke a pipeline along the Viche River in Ecuador, Saturday, March 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa)

A woman cries after her friend, Valérie Saint-Fort, behind, fell dead from a bullet wound after soldiers fired their guns into the air as a tribute during the funeral of two soldiers in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Monday, March 17, 2025. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)

WASHINGTON (AP) — With massive job cuts, the National Weather Service is eliminating or reducing vital weather balloon launches in eight northern locations, which meteorologists and former agency leaders said will degrade the accuracy of forecasts just as severe weather season kicks in.

The normally twice-daily launches of weather balloons in about 100 locations provide information that forecasters and computer models use to figure out what the weather will be and how dangerous it can get, so cutting back is a mistake, said eight different scientists, meteorologists and former top officials at National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — the weather service's parent agency.

The balloons soar 100,000 feet in the air with sensors called radiosondes hanging about 20 feet below them that measure temperature, dew point, humidity, barometric pressure, wind speed and direction.

“The thing about weather balloons is that they give you information you can't get any other way,” said D. James Baker, a former NOAA chief during the Clinton administration. He had to cut spending in the agency during his tenure but he said he refused to cut observations such as weather balloons. “It's an absolutely essential piece of the forecasting system.”

University of Oklahoma environment professor Renee McPherson said, “This frankly is just dangerous.”

“Bad,” Ryan Maue, who was NOAA's chief scientist at the end of President Donald Trump's first term, wrote in an email. “We should not degrade our weather system by skipping balloon launches. Not only is this embarrassing for NOAA, the cessation of weather balloon launches will worsen America's weather forecasts.”

Launches will be eliminated in Omaha, Nebraska, and Rapid City, South Dakota, “due to a lack of Weather Forecast Office (WFO) staffing,” the weather service said in a notice issued late Thursday. It also is cutting from twice daily to once daily launches i n Aberdeen, South Dakota; Grand Junction, Colorado; Green Bay, Wisconsin; Gaylord, Michigan; North Platte, Nebraska and Riverton, Wyoming.

The Trump administration and its Department of Government Efficiency fired hundreds, likely more than 1,000, NOAA workers earlier this year. The government then sent out letters telling probationary employees let go that they will get paid, but should not report to work.

Earlier this month, the agency had announced weather balloon cuts in Albany, New York and Gray, Maine, and in late February, it ended launches in Kotzebue, Alaska. That makes 11 announced sites with reduced or eliminated balloon observations, or about one out of nine launch locations which include part of the Pacific and Caribbean.

Among regularly reporting weather stations, NOAA had averaged about only one outage of balloon launches a day from 2021 to 2024, according to an Associated Press analysis of launch data.

Meteorologists Jeff Masters and Tomer Burg calculate that 14 of 83 U.S. balloon sites, or 17%, are doing partial or no launches. That includes two stations that aren't launching because of a helium shortage and a third that is hindered because of coastal erosion.

“The more data we can feed into our weather models, the more accurate our forecasts, but I can’t speculate on the extent of future impacts,” weather service spokesperson Susan Buchanan said in an email.

University at Albany meteorology professor Kristen Corbosiero looked at the map of launches Friday and said “wow, that is an empty area ... That's not great.”

Corbosiero works in the building where the Albany weather service used to go to the roof to launch twice-daily weather balloons. It's now down to one at night, which she said it is worrisome heading into severe weather season.

“For those of us east of the Rocky Mountains, this is probably the worst time of year,” said Oklahoma's McPherson. “It's the time of year that we have some of our largest tornado outbreaks, especially as we move into April and May.”

Former National Weather Service Director Elbert “Joe” Friday said the weather balloons get “the detailed lower atmospheric level of temperature and humidity that can determine whether the atmosphere is going to be hot enough to set off severe storms and how intense they might be.”

Satellites do a good job getting a big picture and ground measurements and radar show what's happening on the ground, but the weather balloons provide the key middle part of the forecasting puzzle — the atmosphere — where so much weather brews, several meteorologists said.

All of the 10 announced reductions are in the northern part of the United States. That's about where the jet stream — which is a river of air that moves weather systems across the globe — is this time of year, so not having as many observations is especially problematic, McPherson and Corbosiero said.

Weather balloons are also vital for helping forecast when and where it will rain, said Baker and another former NOAA chief, Rick Spinrad.

The weather agency has been launching balloons regularly since the 1930s. During World War II, weather balloon launches in the Arctic helped America win the air battle over Europe with better forecasts for planes, former weather chief Friday said.

It takes 90 minutes to an hour to fill a weather balloon with helium or hydrogen, get it fitted with a sensor, then ready it for launch making sure the radiosonde doesn't drag on the ground, said Friday, who recalled launching a balloon in Nome, Alaska with 30 mph winds and windchill of about 30 degrees below zero.

Meteorologists then track the data for a couple hours before the balloon falls back to the ground for a total of about four of five hours work for one person, Friday said.

“It's kind of fun to do,” Friday said on Friday.

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Data journalist Mary Katherine Wildeman contributed from Hartford, Connecticut.

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FILE - A National Weather Service weather balloon sits ready for launch in the Upper Air Inflation Building at the National Weather Service, April 27, 2006, in Sterling, Va. (AP Photo/Chris Greenberg, File)