Fireworks dazzled Rio's sky, and more top photos this week in Latin America and the Caribbean

Dec. 26 – Jan. 2, 2025

People across Latin America rang in the new year, during a week when Guatemalan migrants were deported back home and scientists in Mexico studied the Popocatepetl volcano.

This gallery was curated by photo editor Jon Orbach, based in Mexico City.

AP photography: https://apnews.com/photography

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

FILE - People spend time on the beach in Carilo, Buenos Aires province, Argentina, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

FILE - Revelers take part in the Afro-Venezuelan Holy Innocents' Day celebration in Caucagua, Venezuela, Dec. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

FILE - A devotee dances during a ceremony honoring Yemanja, the sea goddess of the Yoruba religion, on Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

FILE - Jose Saavedra proposes to his girlfriend Mariele Munoz at the Valle Arriba viewpoint in Caracas, Venezuela, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix, File)

FILE - Marco Calo, left, a geophysicist at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), takes a break on the slopes of the Popocatepetl volcano in Mexico, Dec. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo, File)

FILE - A vendor sells New Year's eve party goods at a market in downtown Lima, Peru, Dec. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo, File)

FILE - Cinthia Falcón, a neighbor dressed as Santa Claus, delivers gifts donated by NGOs during a celebration organized by a neighborhood soup kitchen in Lomas de Zamora, a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Dec. 27, 2025. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd, File)

FILE - Shamans perform an annual ritual to predict political and social issues for the new year in Lima, Peru, Dec. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo, File)

FILE - A Guatemalan deported from the U.S. waits to leave a processing center after returning with other migrants on a repatriation flight to La Aurora airport in Guatemala City, Dec. 30, 2025. The man, who did not want to give his name, said he was detained while on his way to work at a construction site in Georgia. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo, File)

FILE - People celebrate as fireworks light up the sky over Copacabana Beach during New Year's celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Jan. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado, File)

ADEN, Yemen (AP) — Saudi warplanes have reportedly struck on Friday forces in southern Yemen backed by the United Arab Emirates, a separatist leader says.

This comes as a Saudi-led operation attempts to take over camps of the Southern Transitional Council, or STC, in the governorate of Haramout that borders Saudi Arabia.

Tensions between Saudi Arabia and the UAE rose after the STC moved last month into Yemen’s governorates of Hadramout and Mahra and seized an oil-rich region. The move pushed out forces affiliated with the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces, a group aligned with the coalition in fighting the Iran-backed Houthis in Yemen.

Meanwhile, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen accused the head of the STC of blocking a Saudi mediation delegation from landing in the southern city of Aden.

The STC deputy and former Hamdrmout governor, Ahmed bin Breik, said in a statement that the Saudi-backed National Shield Forces advanced toward the camps, but the separatists refused to withdraw, apparently leading to the airstrikes.

Mohamed al-Nakib, spokesperson for the STC-backed Southern Shield Forces, also known as Dera Al-Janoub, said Saudi airstrikes caused fatalities, without providing details. The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify that claim.

Al-Nakib also accused Saudi Arabia in a video on X of using “Muslim Brotherhood and al-Qaeda militias” in a "large-scale attack " early Friday that he claimed sepratists were able to repel.

He likened the latest developments to Yemen’s 1994 civil war, “except that this time it is under the cover of Saudi aviation operations.”

Salem al-Khanbashi, the governor of Hadramout who was chosen Friday by Yemen's internationally recognized government to command the Saudi-led forces in the governorate, refuted STC claims, calling them “ridiculous” and showing intentions of escalation instead of a peaceful handover, according Okaz newspaper, which is aligned with the Saudi government.

Earlier on Friday, al-khanbashi called the current operation of retrieving seized areas “peaceful.”

“This operation is not a declaration of war and does not seek escalation,” al-Khanbashi said in a speech aired on state media. “This is a responsible pre-emptive measure to remove weapons and prevent chaos and the camps from being used to undermine the security in Hadramout,” he added.

The Saudi-led coalition in Yemen demands the withdrawal of STC forces from the two governorates as part of de-escalation efforts. The STC has so far refused to hand over its weapons and camps.

The coalition's spokesperson Brig. Gen. Turki al-Maliki said Friday on X that Saudi naval forces were deployed across the Arabian Sea to carry out inspections and combat smuggling.

In his post on X, the Saudi ambassador to Yemen, Mohammed al-Jaber, said the kingdom had tried “all efforts with STC” for weeks "to stop the escalation" and to urge the separatists to leave Hadramout and Mahra, only to be faced with “continued intransigence and rejection from Aidarous al-Zubaidi," the STC head.

Al-Jaber said the latest development was not permitting the Saudi delegation's jet to land in Aden, despite having agreed on its arrival with some STC leaders to find a solution that serves “everyone and the public interest.”

Yemen’s transport ministry, aligned with STC, said Saudi Arabia imposed on Thursday requirements mandating that flights to and from Aden International Airport undergo inspection in Jeddah. The ministry expressed “shock” and denounced the decision. There was no confirmation from Saudi authorities.

ِA spokesperson with the transport ministry told the AP late Thursday that all flights from and to the UAE were suspended until Saudi Arabia reverses these reported measures.

Yemen has been engulfed in a civil war for more than a decade, with the Houthis controlling much of the northern regions, while a Saudi-UAE-backed coalition supports the internationally recognized government in the south. However, the UAE also helps the southern separatists who call for South Yemen to secede once again from Yemen. Those aligned with the council have increasingly flown the flag of South Yemen, which was a separate country from 1967-1990.

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Associated Press writers Bassem Mroue in Beirut and Fatma Khaled in Cairo contributed to this report.

Southern Yemen soldiers of Southern Transitional Council (STC) at a check point, in Aden, Yemen, Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025. (AP Photo)