Peru swears in new president and other top photos from Latin America and the Caribbean

July 24-30, 2026

Keiko Fujimori was sworn in as Peru’s president, a victory that confirmed a regional shift in South America toward the conservative wing.

Mexico said it will address the growing problem of sargassum, a brown seaweed that has quadrupled in the Mexican Caribbean this year and poses a threat not only to the environment but also to tourism.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei accused Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of being a “thief” and a “delinquent,” among other things. Milei was in Sao Paulo for an event where Brazilian Sen. Flávio Bolsonaro, a son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, was confirmed as the presidential candidate of his father’s party.

This gallery was curated by chief photographer Eduardo Verdugo based in Mexico City.

Fog covers the community of El Limon, Panama, the site of the proposed Rio Indio Reservoir, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

Dominican Republic's Symbol Sanchez competes in the men's platform preliminary diving event at the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

A billboard depicting the late leader Fidel Castro and reading "Homeland or death, we will defeat!" is seen during an event marking the 73th anniversary of the start of the Cuban Revolution in Pinar del Rio, Cuba, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Police patrol by a U.S. donated Mamba armored military vehicle in the Marconi neighborhood of Montevideo, Uruguay, Sunday, July 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Matilde Campodonico)

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva pretends to examine World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus with dental equipment during a visit to the Andaraí Hospital in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Bruna Prado)

A janitor wipes chairs at the Universidad Santiago de Cali auditorium, where President-elect Abelardo de la Espriella will be inaugurated, in Cali, Colombia, Wednesday, July 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Santiago Saldarriaga)

Spectators avoid a charging bull during a traditional Toros Populares festival in Pillaro, Ecuador, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Dolores Ochoa).

Brazilian Sen. Flavio Bolsonaro, right, handles an oversized pair of scissors, accompanied by Argentina's President Javier Milei during the Liberal Party convention where Bolsonaro was confirmed as the party's presidential candidate, in Sao Paulo, Saturday, July 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Ettore Chiereguini)

Parishioners wearing a birdlike costumes dance in the annual procession honoring 16th-century St. Francis Solano in Emboscada, Paraguay, Friday, July 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Jorge Saenz)

Sargassum covers the coast of Tulum, Mexico, Thursday, July 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Fernando Llano)

Peru's President Keiko Fujimori walks to the presidential palace after her inauguration in Lima, Peru, Tuesday, July 28, 2026. (AP Photo/Martin Mejia)

GENEVA (AP) — European nations agreed Thursday to boycott the World Cup and all other FIFA competitions to protest Gianni Infantino’s plan to sell stakes in soccer’s biggest tournament to private equity investors. The North American soccer body rejected his plan later the same day.

“UEFA and its national associations will not participate in FIFA competitions,” the European soccer body said after an urgent online meeting of its 55 member nations.

FIFA issued a statement early Friday saying that “nobody is selling football” and that it plans to continue the consultation process. But it appeared to back off from establishing the public equity move — what it calls the FIFA Forward Enterprise (FFE) — if member countries do not agree.

“FIFA acknowledges and respects feedback and concern aired in public,” it said, while blaming "erroneous reporting in the media” for disruptions to its planned consultation with member associations.

But it said that without the support of FIFA's 211 member associations, “FIFA’s commercial activities would remain unchanged. FFE would not be established.”

"Nobody is selling football. This is not something FIFA would ever entertain.”

The next scheduled FIFA tournament is within weeks in Europe — the Women’s Under-20 World Cup hosted by Poland from Sept. 5 — and the four British federations comprise FIFA’s only bidder to host the 2035 Women’s World Cup. That decision is due Nov. 23.

“Some things are simply too important to sell,” UEFA said in a statement. “The FIFA World Cup belongs to football. It always will. And so long as Europe has a voice, it will never be for sale.”

The strategy meeting was called to counter FIFA President Infantino’s offer of $20 million to each of FIFA’s 211 global members that has to be accepted by mid-September.

Later Thursday, the 41-member Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) met and announced it rejected Infantino's plan.

In a statement, CONCACAF said members “expressed deep concerns about the lack of due process surrounding the proposal, the artificially short deadline imposed, and the absence of any review or approval by the relevant FIFA governance bodies.” It also questioned the need for outside investment "following the most profitable FIFA World Cup in history.”

Infantino’s secret project was revealed Tuesday to spin off its commercial operations in the new $20 billion FFE subsidiary 20% owned by private investors. The core investor would be a New York investment firm created by Joshua Kushner, the brother of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Infantino wrote Tuesday to the 211 members — already the effective owners of FIFA as a non-profit association under Swiss law — that if they approve FFE their promised $10 million basic funding for the next four years will double to $20 million. He projected their FIFA funding through 2038 would be $86 million each, instead of about $36 million.

“This is not merely a profound failure of leadership, but an abdication of FIFA’s duty as the custodian of world football,” said UEFA, where Infantino was a long-time staffer and its CEO-like general secretary when he was first elected to lead FIFA in 2016.

Infantino’s high-stakes financial gambit now could threaten his previously secure 11-year presidency of FIFA as anger and frustration with him rises among soccer stakeholders including three of the six continental bodies.

FIFA has set a Nov. 18 deadline for potential candidates to declare in a presidential vote of the 211 members scheduled next March in Rabat, Morocco.

Infantino had seemed — 11 days ago after the World Cup final in East Rutherford, New Jersey — to have a clear path to being re-elected unopposed for a fourth and final term in office through 2031, despite a furor over letting United States forward Folarin Balogun play against Belgium despite a red card in his previous game.

Soccer officials have said privately Infantino has eyed a lucrative commissioner-like role at the FFE spinoff beyond 2031.

“Game over, Gianni #InfantinOUT,” the Football Supporters Europe group, which advises UEFA on fan issues such as ticket prices, posted after the boycott threat.

UEFA detailed Thursday why soccer officials fear external investors owning a stake of the global game’s biggest events, including World Cups and Club World Cups for men and women.

“The moment external investors acquire ownership interests in FIFA competitions, football changes forever,” UEFA said. “Commercial return becomes a permanent obligation. Investor expectations become a daily pressure.”

Infantino has presented the private equity offer as a chance to “turbocharge” funding development of soccer across the world, where a majority of the 211 FIFA members rely on its funding.

Officials from about 40 UEFA member spoke at the urgent meeting, with anger expressed that FIFA is not using some of its multi-billion reserves to fund extra development programs.

“As a result of today’s discussion, no UEFA national teams will participate in any FIFA competition for so long as these proposals remain alive,” the European soccer body said, “unless this proposal has been abandoned in its entirety and binding assurances have been given that FIFA will never again open its governance or competitions to private ownership.”

On a seismic day in soccer politics, a traditional bedrock of support in Asia for FIFA and Infantino had earlier Thursday been shaken.

“FIFA’s unilateral actions appear to undermine the very foundations of continental football,” the Asian Football Confederation president Sheikh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa said in a letter to its 46 members of FIFA, warning of risks to their own competitions.

Sheikh Salman, an ally to Infantino since losing the FIFA presidential election to him in 2016, wrote “such an initiative will not succeed without the support of all the confederations, which is not the case now.”

In a video message published Wednesday by FIFA, Infantino insisted spinning off its money-making operations was “an offer, not an obligation.”

A FIFA presentation for its members, co-written with its banking advisors from J.P. Morgan and seen by the AP, set a goal for FFE as “commercial rigor and expertise to better capitalize on broadcast rights, sponsorships and a growing tournament portfolio.”

That growing portfolio likely would include adding more teams to FIFA competitions like the World Cup and Club World Cup for men and women, and potentially staging them more often than every four years, including in the U.S.

FIFA adding teams, games and competitions would squeeze the value, status and space in the congested global fixture calendar for those that fund and are organized by the six continental soccer bodies like UEFA and the AFC. Those include World Cup qualifying games, continental tournaments and Champions Leagues.

“It is important that the AFC family has a complete understanding,” Sheikh Salman wrote, “of how such an initiative may affect key areas of global and Asian football, including the sustainability of confederation and (domestic) competitions, as well as the organization and commercial landscape surrounding the AFC’s activities.”

A threatened World Cup boycott from Europe helped derail Infantino’s plan in 2021 to play World Cups every two years instead of four.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer and AP World Cup coverage

FILE - FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, talks to UEFA President Aleksander Ceferin during the FIFA 75th Congress at the Conmebol Convention Center in Luque, Paraguay, Thursday, May 15, 2025. (AP Photo/Fernando Calistro, File)

FILE - Asia Football Confederation President Salman Bin Ibrahim Al-Khalifa, center, walks with FIFA President Gianni Infantino, right, as they arrive for an inauguration ceremony for the new building of the Asia Football Confederation in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2018. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian, File)