The Associated Press

The beginning of the end came for the world’s tallest slum last week when Venezuelan officials began evicting thousands of squatters from a haphazard community inside a half-built Caracas skyscraper. Residents boarded buses for government-provided apartments in the town of Cua, 23 miles (37 kilometers) south of Caracas.

Associated Press journalists Sonia Perez and Esteban Felix introduced us to Elsa Ramirez, a Honduran recently deported from the U.S. Her husband was killed by co-workers involved in cocaine trafficking, and then the killers came looking for her. Ramirez had seen Facebook messages and heard from relatives that mothers with children would be allowed to stay in the U.S. if they made it over the border, so she headed off with her young daughter and son. But she was sent right back to where she started, the badlands of Honduras.

In Mexico, circus workers are fighting a growing movement to ban the use of animals in performances. Circus performers gave a free public show in Mexico City’s main plaza to protest the city’s ban. Animal rights activists say they are fighting abuses of animals used in circuses. Circus people say they are closely regulated and inspected, and they feel Mexico City’s new ban unfairly singles them out.

An estimated 2,700 dancers gathered in Guaqui, Bolivia, to perform a well-known Andean folk dance, La Morenada. According to anthropologists, the dance is a satire, inspired by the suffering of black slaves who were brought to Bolivia to work in Andean silver mines.

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This gallery was curated by photo editor Anita Baca in Mexico City.

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