23 captivating photos of Latin America from 2015

AP Photo/Silvia Izquierdo, File

Stretching from the northern border crossings in the Mexican city of Tijuana to the southern reaches of Argentina's Tierra del Fuego, Latin America is an immense and diverse region, home to more than a half-billion people speaking hundreds of languages.

No collection of words or photographs could fully capture the totality of the social and political events that occurred in the region in 2015, but below you can find a selection of images that attempt to catalog the year that was in Latin America.

MEXICO: Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto, right, and Brazil's President Dilma Rousseff look up during a welcome ceremony at the National Palace in Mexico City, May 26, 2015.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto, along with his Brazilian counterpart Dilma Rousseff, has been one of the most embattled leaders in the region.

Peña Nieto stumbled into the year with the memory of the violent attack and suspected murder of 43 protesting students in southwest Mexico fresh in the minds of his countrymen. His reputation took hits from multiple reports of corruption and influence-peddling that emerged throughout the first half of the year.

In what was likely the most embarrassing moment for Peña Nieto during 2015, Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán broke out of jail in July and continues to elude authorities. In the weeks after the jailbreak, Peña Nieto suffered yet more embarrassment when it was revealed he continued to play dominoes immediately after learning of the escape.

Peña Nieto will close 2015 with the lowest approval ratings of any Mexican president since the early 1990s (when the country was suffering a debilitating economic crisis), largely due to his government's security shortcomings as well as a mixed economic performance that has left many Mexicans struggling to make ends meet.

MEXCIO: A demonstrator wearing a Guy Fawkes mask holds up a Mexican flag during a protest to mark the eight-month anniversary of the Ayotzinapa students' disappearance from Iguala in Gerrero state, Mexico City, May 26, 2015.

EL SALVADOR: In this August 31, 2015, photo, soldiers guard a corner in a gang-controlled neighborhood in Ilopango, El Salvador. Figures released by the country's coroner's office confirm the month of August as the deadliest in the country's history.

Insecurity in the Northern Triangle region of Central America (Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador) deepened in 2015, with some measures putting El Salvador's homicide rate above 100 per 100,000 people, the highest in the region.

A wave of child migrants arriving at the US southern border in 2014 prompted American officials to push Mexico to do more to intercept Central American migrants transiting Mexico, and data collected during the first half of 2015 reveal that the Mexican government complied.

When not dodging Mexican immigration officials, those migrants also had to contend with gangs and other criminals in Mexico, who robbed, beat, and raped vulnerable migrants as they traveled through the country.