Latest Puerto Rico News

Coast Guard ends search after rescuing 38 near Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The U.S. Coast Guard announced Monday that it suspended the search for potential survivors of a capsized boat near Puerto Rico after finding 11 bodies and rescuing 38 migrants from a vessel that had carried an estimated 60 to 75 passengers. Crews...

Fatal boat trip highlights Haitians fleeing violence
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Haitians are fleeing in greater numbers to the neighboring Dominican Republic, where they board rickety wooden boats painted sky blue to blend with the ocean to try to reach Puerto Rico — a trip in which 11 Haitian women drowned this week, with dozens of other...
11 dead, 31 rescued after boat capsizes near Puerto Rico
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — A boat loaded with suspected migrants capsized north of an uninhabited island near Puerto Rico and 11 people had been confirmed dead while 31 others were rescued Thursday, authorities said. It wasn't immediately clear how many people were aboard the...
Puerto Rico governor rejects budget in new clash with board
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico’s governor announced Thursday that he was rejecting a proposed $12.4 billion budget filed by a federal control board overseeing the island’s finances and would submit his own version as the U.S. territory emerges from bankruptcy. The...
St. Kitts dissolves Parliament, fires several top officials
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — The prime minister of the eastern Caribbean island of St. Kitts and Nevis has had the royal governor-general dissolve its Parliament and has fired several top officials including the deputy prime minister. Tuesday’s announcement by Prime Minister...
Bahamas calls on US labs to help solve deaths of 3 tourists
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Samples taken from three tourists from Tennessee and Florida who died at a resort in the Bahamas under mysterious circumstances have been sent to a lab in the U.S. to expedite results and help authorities understand what happened, officials said Monday. ...

Builders hurt protected areas in climate-weary Puerto Rico
SALINAS, Puerto Rico (AP) — Jacqueline Vázquez was sitting on the couch when her phone rang. She had just returned from a government office where she filed a complaint about illegal construction in an ecological reserve. The reserve is dedicated to one of the island's largest...

Ruling threatens US power as world's high-seas drug police
MIAMI (AP) — Jeffri Dávila-Reyes says he’s still mystified how he ended up serving hard time in a U.S. federal prison. His cocaine bust at sea was closer to his homeland of Costa Rica than the United States, and the few kilos of drugs he was carrying were bound for Jamaica...
Puerto Rico launches hearings on bill to restrict abortions
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Puerto Rico on Tuesday held its first public hearing on a bill that aims to restrict abortions in the U.S. territory as powerful political leaders who support the measure seek to join a similar conservative push in the U.S. mainland. If approved, the...

Haiti grounds private flights amid probe into deadly crash
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Haiti’s National Civil Aviation Office announced Thursday that it is banning all private aircraft from flying during an investigation into the crash of a small plane that killed at least five people and injured several others. Authorities did not say...
