Author: Danica Coto

CAYEY, Puerto Rico • Hurricane Fiona blasted the Turks and Caicos Islands on Tuesday as a Category 3 storm after devastating Puerto Rico, where most people remained without electricity or running water and rescuers used heavy equipment to lift survivors to safety. The storm’s eye passed close to Grand Turk, the small British territory’s capital…

GUANICA, Puerto Rico • Cars, cots and plastic chairs became temporary beds for hundreds of families who lost their homes in southwest Puerto Rico as a flurry of earthquakes struck the island, one of them the strongest in a century. The magnitude 6.4 quake that struck before dawn on Tuesday killed one person, injured nine…

FREEPORT, Bahamas — Relief officials reported scenes of utter ruin in parts of the Bahamas and rushed to deal with an unfolding humanitarian crisis in the wake of Hurricane Dorian, the most powerful storm on record ever to hit the islands. At least five deaths were reported, with the full scope of the disaster still…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • Dorian became a Category 1 hurricane Wednesday as it struck the U.S. Virgin Islands, with forecasters saying it could grow to Category 3 status as it nears the U.S. mainland as early as the weekend. The British Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands of Vieques and Culebra were also…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • Justice Secretary Wanda Vázquez became Puerto Rico’s new governor Wednesday, just the second woman to hold the office, after weeks of political turmoil and hours after the island’s Supreme Court declared Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in a week ago unconstitutional. Accompanied by her husband, Judge Jorge Díaz, and her daughter, Vázquez took…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • After weeks of flag-waving, cowbell-clanging protests in the streets, Puerto Ricans on Thursday celebrated the resignation of Gov. Ricardo Rosselló, even as they debated where the movement should go from here and how to root out the corruption and other chronic problems that fueled the unrest. Some protesters immediately set…

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico • A Puerto Rico judge issued search warrants for the cellphones of government officials involved in a crude online chat whose leak has set off a political crisis that threatens to bring down the U.S. territory’s governor. One of the search warrants said that government officials used the chat to transmit…

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti • Businesses and government offices slowly reopened across Haiti on Monday after more than a week of violent demonstrations by hundreds of thousands of protesters demanding the resignation of President Jovenel Moise over skyrocketing prices that have more than doubled for basic goods amid allegations of government corruption. Public transportation resumed in the…