Global Pulse

分类： world

  • Israeli settlers cross into Syria and Lebanon calling for new settlements

    Israeli settlers cross into Syria and Lebanon calling for new settlements

    During Israel’s 78th Independence Day commemorations this week, two separate far-right Israeli settler groups carried out coordinated illegal incursions into neighboring Syrian and Lebanese territory, escalating long-simmering expansionist demands that have put Israeli security forces in the position of intervening to remove the activists.

    The first incident unfolded along Israel’s northern border with Syria, when approximately 40 activists linked to the right-wing Halutzei HaBashan — or Bashan Pioneers, a movement named for the biblical term for the Golan Heights-adjacent region — crossed into the village of Hader, located in Syria’s Quneitra Governorate on Wednesday. Multiple members of the group barricaded themselves inside a local building, tying their bodies to the structure to resist removal. They launched a public appeal, urging ordinary Israelis to pressure government ministers to defy military orders and allow them to remain on Syrian territory. Footage circulated online confirmed the presence of the settlers on the building’s rooftop in Hader. Israeli military forces ultimately intervened, removing all the activists and escorting them back across the border into Israel.

    In a second separate incursion just days after a similar crossing into Syria on Monday, a small group of activists from another far-right settler organization, Uri Tzafon (translated as Awaken North), entered Lebanese territory near the Manara Cliff, an area Israelis refer to as Ramim Ridge. Local Israeli media correspondent Itay Blumental of public broadcaster Kan 11 confirmed the group advanced hundreds of meters into Lebanese land before Israeli security forces detained them and transferred the activists to national police for processing.

    In a statement released after the incident, Uri Tzafon claimed the incursion was framed as a “family tour” to visit cedar trees the group had planted near the border earlier in 2026, and said the action was meant to mark Israel’s Independence Day in what they called “renewed Lebanon.” The group doubled down on its long-held expansionist platform, saying: “We reiterate our call for true independence and full sovereignty of the State of Israel in southern Lebanon – up to the Litani River and beyond.”

    For their part, the Bashan Pioneers said they would not abandon their goals, noting they would only withdraw from the territory permanently once the government authorized their families to move to and settle the occupied areas. In a direct appeal to the current right-wing Israeli administration, the group stated: “The right-wing government should capitalise on the time it has left to set facts on the ground.”

    Israeli officials have formally condemned the unauthorized incursions. The Israel Defense Forces labeled the Hader incursion “a serious offence” that endangered both the civilian activists and deployed military troops. Israeli police have issued formal warnings that crossing into Syria or Lebanon without authorization is a criminal offense, carrying a maximum penalty of four years of prison time for convicted violators.

    These two incursions are not isolated events: both groups have carried out similar illegal border crossings repeatedly since Israel expanded its occupation into new portions of Syria and Lebanon starting in 2024. The actions come amid a growing coordinated push by multiple Israeli settler movements to formally expand Israeli state borders and authorize civilian settlement in newly occupied territories.

    One of the most prominent established settler organizations, Nachala, has publicly joined the call for settlement in southern Lebanon, echoing expansionist language previously used for the Gaza Strip. Ayelet Schlissel, a spokesperson for Nachala, told Israeli settler news outlet Srugim on Sunday: “any area from which the enemy poses a threat – we must eliminate it, expel, and settle.” She repeated the slogan “Occupation, expulsion, settlement” when referring to southern Lebanon, mirroring the movement’s longstanding demands for the Gaza Strip. Just days later on Wednesday, Nachala organized a mass march of roughly 2,000 people on Israeli territory near Gaza, with all participants holding a single clear demand: to be allowed to return to and resettle the Gaza Strip. Unlike the incursions into Syria and Lebanon, the protest remained inside Israeli-designated borders.

    Top Israeli government officials have already signaled openness to these expansionist goals. Earlier this month, Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich told a crowd of settlers in the occupied West Bank that the government would pursue “a clear political strategy in Gaza that expands our borders,” adding that the same policy would apply to both Lebanon and Syria. Currently, Israel has maintained full military occupation of captured Syrian territory since the fall of the Bashar al-Assad regime in December 2024, and has occupied large swathes of southern Lebanon for most of the past two and a half years.

  • International graduates bridge China and the world

    International graduates bridge China and the world

    In an era where cross-cultural understanding has never been more critical, international students who complete their higher education in China and return to their home countries are emerging as indispensable connectors between China and the rest of the world, according to a leading Chinese academic.

    Zhang Hao, a professor at Beijing Language and Culture University, shared this observation in an exclusive interview with China Daily, emphasizing the growing role these globally minded graduates play in facilitating people-to-people exchanges. Updated on April 24, 2026, the report highlights how these alumni are embedded across a wide spectrum of professional sectors, turning their experiences in China into tangible connections that bridge cultural and informational gaps.

    From teaching Chinese language to communities abroad to supporting the on-the-ground operations of Chinese enterprises expanding into international markets, these graduates carry far more than just academic credentials from their time in China. They bring first-hand cultural insights, nuanced understandings of Chinese society, and personal friendships forged during their studies, integrating these valuable assets into both their professional work and everyday interactions. In doing so, they are breaking down stereotypes, fostering mutual trust, and creating sustainable channels for dialogue between China and global communities.

  • Three Kosovo Serbs jailed over deadly gun battle and monastery siege

    Three Kosovo Serbs jailed over deadly gun battle and monastery siege

    In a long-awaited ruling that amplifies already tense relations between Serbia and Kosovo, a Pristina court has handed down heavy sentences to three Kosovo Serbs convicted of participating in the September 2023 armed assault on Kosovo security forces in the northern village of Banjska — an incident that stands as one of the deadliest episodes in Kosovo’s post-independence history.

    Two of the defendants, Vladimir Tolić and Blagoj Spasojević, received life imprisonment, while a third, Dušan Maksimović, was sentenced to 30 years behind bars. All three were found guilty of breaching Kosovo’s constitutional order and orchestrating terrorist activities. In total, prosecutors have leveled charges against 45 individuals connected to the attack, but authorities acknowledge the vast majority of the accused are hiding in Serbia, which has refused to extradite them to Kosovo.

    The Banjska attack, which unfolded on the morning of September 24, began when Kosovo police responded to a report of a freight truck blocking a local bridge. As officers arrived, a group of roughly 30 armed assailants opened fire with automatic weapons and grenades, killing Kosovo police Sergeant Afrim Bunjaku and wounding two other officers. After the initial gun battle, the surviving attackers retreated to a nearby 14th-century Serbian Orthodox monastery, forcing their way inside, barricading the entrances, and trapping a group of Serbian pilgrims from Novi Sad inside with them.

    A day-long standoff followed, leaving three members of the armed group dead. By the time Kosovo special forces secured control of the monastery in the late afternoon, all remaining attackers had escaped despite the site being fully surrounded. The group’s self-proclaimed leader, Milan Radoičić — a prominent Kosovo Serb politician — resurfaced days later in Serbia, where he publicly admitted to organizing all logistical preparations for the assault. While Serbian authorities questioned Radoičić, he has not been charged with any crime in Serbia and remains free, though an Interpol arrest warrant restricts his ability to travel internationally.

    Kosovo’s leadership has long argued that the attack had implicit backing from the Serbian government in Belgrade, pointing to Radoičić’s close political ties: he previously served as deputy leader of the Serbian List, the main Kosovo Serb political party that maintains deep links to Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić’s ruling Progressive Party. Radoičić has denied any claims that Serbian government officials knew of his plans, but Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti has repeatedly described the attack as part of a wider Serbian plot to seize control of majority-Serb northern Kosovo.

    Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia in 2008, and relations between the two entities have remained strained ever since the Banjska incident, hitting near-breaking point. Multiple efforts by the European Union to restart mediated normalization talks between Belgrade and Pristina have collapsed, and Friday’s convictions are not expected to repair the fractured diplomatic relationship.

    In a statement following the verdicts, Kosovo’s acting President Albulena Haxhiu framed the ruling as a critical milestone for accountability, saying it “proves that the attack on the Kosovo police, on the constitutional order and on the security of our country will not remain unpunished.” Kosovo Interior Minister Xhelal Sveçla added that the next step is holding Serbia accountable for what Kosovo claims is Belgrade’s political, financial, and logistical support for the attack. Even with the convictions in hand, however, key questions remain unresolved about the full scope of the attack, the ultimate goals of the armed group, and how the escaped assailants slipped past a full police cordon around the monastery.

  • Amjad Youssef, key perpetrator of Tadamon massacre, arrested in Syria

    Amjad Youssef, key perpetrator of Tadamon massacre, arrested in Syria

    Nearly 12 years after one of the most documented war crimes of the Syrian civil war, a central perpetrator of the 2013 Tadamon massacre has been taken into custody by Syrian authorities, marking a milestone in the new government’s push to hold former regime actors accountable for mass atrocities.

    Syrian Interior Minister Anas Khattab confirmed the arrest of Amjad Youssef, a former intelligence officer under the ousted government of Bashar al-Assad, in a post on X on Friday, describing the detention as the outcome of a successful targeted security operation. A senior security source told state-run Sana news agency that Youssef was apprehended in the al-Ghab region of Hama, a rural area in western Syria.

    The massacre that Youssef is linked to unfolded on April 16, 2013, in the working-class Tadamon neighborhood of Damascus, an area originally built in 1967 to resettle Syrians displaced from the Golan Heights after Israel’s occupation of the territory. Long a diverse, multi-communal home to Druze, Sunni, Alawi, Turkmen and Palestinian communities, Tadamon became a target of harsh reprisal from the Assad regime after residents joined widespread peaceful pro-democracy protests in 2011.

    On that April day in 2013, Assad regime soldiers and affiliated militiamen forced 288 captives into a pre-dug earthen pit, subjected them to humiliation and mockery, then executed them at point-blank range. Seven women and 15 children were among those killed, according to footage captured by the perpetrators themselves that was leaked to the public in 2022. The graphic video showed blindfolded, bound detainees being marched to the edge of the pit before being shot, making it one of the most concrete and detailed pieces of evidence confirming war crimes committed by the former Assad administration.

    Witness testimony collected by independent outlet Middle East Eye confirms that the execution pit in Tadamon was not a one-off atrocity. For nearly a decade after the 2013 massacre, targeted killings and mass executions continued in the roughly one-square-kilometer kill zone overseen by Assad’s military intelligence and the pro-regime paramilitary National Defence Forces, with the regime’s operations headquartered in a local building residents dubbed the “chess house” for its distinctive chequered tilework. Neighbors report women abducted from local mosques were brought to the facility to be sexually assaulted, and regime forces acted with complete impunity in the area.

    “I cannot count how many they killed. Everyone here in Tadamon lived in terror,” Abdul-Rahman Saud, a lifelong Tadamon resident and witness to repeated mass killings, told Middle East Eye in December 2024, after Assad’s regime fell to a rebel offensive led by current Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa. “Everyone loved each other but the regime made us hate each other. If they saw on your ID that you were originally from a Sunni area like Idlib or Deir Ezzor, that was enough to kill you.”

    The 2022 leak of the massacre footage proved critical to advancing accountability efforts. The video allowed investigators to identify key suspects, including Youssef, and has been integrated into the new Syrian government’s ongoing legal efforts to bring perpetrators of mass atrocities during the civil war to justice.

  • Pirates hijack oil tanker off the coast of Somalia

    Pirates hijack oil tanker off the coast of Somalia

    After nearly a decade of sharp decline following coordinated international anti-piracy interventions, pirate activity off the coast of Somalia has reemerged as a critical threat to regional maritime security in recent years. The latest and most high-profile incident has underscored the growing risk: armed pirates have seized the oil tanker *Honour 25*, carrying 17 crew members and thousands of barrels of fuel, while it transited waters roughly 30 nautical miles from the Somali shore.

    Multiple regional security sources confirmed to the BBC that six armed assailants boarded and took control of the vessel late Wednesday. Shipping tracking data from ShipAtlas details the tanker’s weeks-long route ahead of the hijacking: it departed Berbera Port, located in the self-declared independent region of Somaliland, on February 20. Shortly after the outbreak of cross-border conflict tied to the U.S.-Israel Iran tensions, the *Honour 25* reached waters near the United Arab Emirates, then loitered near the Strait of Hormuz entrance before reversing course on April 2 to head for Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital.

    Puntland regional security officials, the governing body for Somalia’s semi-autonomous northeastern territory, confirmed the tanker was carrying 18,500 barrels of oil destined for Mogadishu. Following the hijacking, the vessel has been anchored near the Somali coast between the coastal fishing towns of Xaafun and Bander Beyla, under full pirate control. Additional reinforcements have since joined the hijacking party: five more armed men have boarded the *Honour 25*, according to anonymous regional sources. Investigators currently believe the hijackers launched their attack from a remote, unpatrolled stretch of coastline near Bander Beyla, though it remains unclear how the group was able to intercept and overwhelm the tanker without detection.

    The 17-person crew on board includes 10 Pakistani nationals, four Indonesians, one Indian, one Sri Lankan, and one Myanmarese national. No reports on their condition have been released to date.

    This hijacking comes amid a well-documented resurgence of piracy in the Indian Ocean region off Somalia’s coast. Once the global epicenter of maritime hijacking, the area saw pirate attacks drop to near-zero after 2011, when international naval coalitions launched widespread anti-piracy patrols and vessel security mandates. Over the past three years, however, attacks have rebounded, with fishing trawlers, cargo container ships, and now large oil tankers targeted by armed groups.

    The seizure of a fuel tanker bound for Mogadishu is expected to exacerbate already severe economic strain in the capital. Local fuel prices have already tripled in the wake of regional conflicts linked to escalating tensions between Iran and the U.S.-Israel alliance, and renewed fears of disrupted shipping will almost certainly push prices higher and deepen public anxiety.

    As of Thursday, neither formal Somali national government authorities nor the European Naval Force – the multinational body that coordinates official anti-piracy operations in Somali territorial waters – has issued an official statement confirming the hijacking or outlining next steps for response.

  • Pakistani astronauts begin training at China space center

    Pakistani astronauts begin training at China space center

    In a landmark milestone for China-Pakistan aerospace cooperation and international space collaboration, two Pakistani astronauts arrived at the Astronaut Center of China in Beijing on Friday to kick off joint training with their Chinese counterparts, according to official confirmation from the China Manned Space Agency (CMSA).

    In an official statement announcing the start of training, CMSA expressed its expectation that the Pakistani astronauts will soon turn their long-held national space ambition into reality, carrying the Pakistani public’s decades-old spaceflight dream and the enduring friendship between the two Asian nations to China’s Tiangong Space Station, nicknamed the “Heavenly Palace” in Chinese.

    The two trainees, Muhammad Zeeshan Ali and Khurram Daud, are the first international astronaut candidates to receive training at China’s dedicated astronaut facility. Over the coming months, the pair will complete a structured program of specialized training modules before undergoing formal competency assessments. Following the evaluation process, one candidate will be selected to serve as a payload specialist on an upcoming Chinese crewed mission to Tiangong, making history as the first non-Chinese astronaut to visit the Chinese orbiting outpost.

    For Pakistan, the mission carries extra national significance: if the collaboration proceeds successfully, the selected astronaut will become the first Pakistani national ever to reach Earth’s orbit, fulfilling a long-held national goal for the country’s space program.

    The current training program is the outcome of a bilateral agreement signed 14 months prior, in February 2025, between CMSA and Pakistan’s Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission in Islamabad. That agreement laid the formal institutional and operational groundwork for joint cooperation in the selection and training of Pakistani astronauts for a mission to Tiangong.

    Completed after more than a decade of development, Tiangong stands as one of the largest and most technologically advanced space structures ever placed in low Earth orbit. It is currently the only active space station in the world that is independently designed, constructed and operated by a single country. Since the station reached full operational capacity, it has hosted 10 consecutive crews of Chinese taikonauts, supporting hundreds of scientific experiments across a wide range of space research disciplines.

  • Trump says Lebanon ceasefire extended as Israel continues strikes

    Trump says Lebanon ceasefire extended as Israel continues strikes

    In a striking contradiction that lays bare the fragility of cross-border calm in the Middle East, former U.S. President Donald Trump has announced a three-week extension of a fragile truce between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon — even as Israeli bombing raids continued to target Lebanese territory on the day of the announcement.

    Trump made the extension public via a post on his Truth Social platform, shortly after hosting a high-level diplomatic meeting at the White House with Yechiel Leiter, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, and Nada Moawad, Lebanon’s envoy to Washington. The talks came just hours after a new wave of Israeli strikes across Lebanon left seven people dead, among them a working journalist.

    The additional three weeks will stretch the fragile 10-day truce reached last May into mid-month, offering a tentative window for U.S.-brokered negotiations to continue toward a long-term settlement. But the ceasefire has been marked by near-constant violations from both sides since it first took effect. Even as the Washington meeting was underway, exchanges of fire continued across the Israel-Lebanon border. Israel has persisted with air assaults, ground incursions, and home demolitions in southern Lebanon, and earlier this week, the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah responded by launching a barrage of rockets and drones targeting Israeli positions.

    Shortly after the extension was made public on Friday morning, Lebanese state media reported new Israeli air strikes and artillery shelling targeting the outskirts of four areas in southern Lebanon: Majdal Zoun, Touline, Kherbet Selem, and the al-Rihan highlands.

    The ceasefire extension forms part of ongoing U.S. mediation efforts between the Israeli government and Lebanese national authorities. Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Trump said he anticipates that Israeli and Lebanese leaders will travel to Washington to meet with him in the coming weeks, adding that he holds out hope for a permanent, comprehensive peace agreement before the end of the year. “I think there’s a very good chance of having peace. I think it should be an easy one,” Trump told reporters.

    Not all key stakeholders have signed on to the diplomatic process, however. Hezbollah, the primary Lebanese armed group that has led months of fighting against Israeli forces in southern Lebanon, has explicitly rejected the U.S.-led talks.

    Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam outlined his government’s core non-negotiable demand in an interview with The Washington Post: any final peace deal must include the full withdrawal of all Israeli forces from southern Lebanon, including from the contested buffer zone Israel has unilaterally declared inside Lebanese territory.

    The current round of full-scale open hostilities dates back to March 2, when Israel restarted large-scale military operations in Lebanon. This followed more than a year of repeated ceasefire violations after a temporary truce between Israel and Hezbollah was reached in November 2024. Since resuming its offensive, Israeli ground forces have pushed several kilometers into southern Lebanese territory, establishing a self-declared 10-kilometer buffer zone inside Lebanese borders. Israeli troops remain deployed across this area, and all Lebanese civilians have been barred from returning to their native villages in the zone.

  • After a failed attempt, Australian families again attempt repatriation from Syria’s Roj camp

    After a failed attempt, Australian families again attempt repatriation from Syria’s Roj camp

    In a development that reignites debate over the repatriation of citizens linked to the Islamic State (IS) militant group, four Australian families departed the Roj Camp in northeast Syria on Friday, launching a fresh push to return to their home country, according to regional officials.

    Correspondents from the Associated Press witnessed 13 Australian women and children board a bus guarded by a Syrian government delegation for the journey out of the remote camp, which sits just kilometers from the Iraq-Syria border and holds thousands of family members of people suspected of ties to IS.

    Lana Hussein, a senior official with the Women’s Protection Units, an arm of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) that oversees security at Roj Camp, confirmed that the departure was coordinated jointly with the central Syrian government in Damascus. Per the agreed-upon arrangement, the Australian group will stay in the Syrian capital for approximately three days, after which they will be deported following standard security vetting procedures, Hussein explained.

    As of Friday evening, neither the Syrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs nor the Australian federal government had issued any public statement in response to press requests for comment. It also remains unclear whether the Australian government was aware of or involved in planning this latest departure attempt.

    This second effort to repatriate Australian citizens from the camp follows a failed attempt in February that saw a group of 34 women and children turned away by Syrian authorities before they could reach Damascus to depart for Australia. At the time, Australian officials explicitly stated they would not facilitate the group’s repatriation, and Canberra later issued a temporary exclusion barring one of the participating women from reentering the country.

    The geographic context of the situation has shifted dramatically since that February attempt. Roj Camp is located in a region of northeast Syria that was long controlled by the SDF, but clashes between the SDF and Syrian government forces in early 2024 ended with Damascus seizing control of the majority of the territory the SDF previously held. The fighting also triggered a wave of prison breaks and mass escapes from the larger al-Hol camp, another major facility holding IS-linked detainees, which has since been formally closed. Following the collapse of IS’s self-declared caliphate in 2019, tens of thousands of former fighters, their spouses and children from dozens of countries were detained in a network of SDF-run camps and detention centers across northeast Syria. In the aftermath of the January clashes, the U.S. military transferred thousands of former IS detainees from Syria to Iraq to face legal proceedings.

    Canberra has previously facilitated two repatriation operations for Australian women and children held in Syrian detention camps, and an unknown number of other Australian citizens have returned to the country without official government support. Even after the defeat of IS’s territorial rule, the group retains active sleeper cells that continue to launch lethal attacks across both Syria and Iraq.

    This report includes contributing reporting from AP correspondent Abby Sewell based in Beirut.

  • What a reporter learned covering a protest in Venezuela led by women hoping to free their loved ones

    What a reporter learned covering a protest in Venezuela led by women hoping to free their loved ones

    In the wake of a seismic political shift that shook Venezuela earlier this year, a small group of ordinary women have emerged as unlikely challengers to the country’s new ruling order, turning a quiet Caracas police station sidewalk into a stage for a months-long fight for their loved ones. In an interview with AP editor Del Quentin Wilber, award-winning Associated Press reporter Regina Garcia Cano opened up about the process of chronicling the unprecedented protest that tested both the women’s grit and the new government’s tolerance for dissent.

    The upheaval began in January, when the United States military carried out a raid that deposed long-time authoritarian President Nicolás Maduro, who had claimed victory in the 2024 presidential election despite widespread credible evidence of electoral fraud. In a move that shocked Venezuelan voters, the Trump administration threw its support behind a ruling-party loyalist rather than the political opposition to lead the country, leaving much of the existing power structure intact. The new acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, quickly moved to release all detained U.S. citizens to curry favor with Washington, but hundreds of Venezuelans held on what human rights groups classify as political charges remained locked up.

    Weeks after Maduro’s capture, the Rodríguez administration announced a mass prisoner release and signed an amnesty bill that was supposed to clear the way for thousands of current and former dissidents to walk free. That promise drew dozens of women — most of them wives and mothers of the detained — to gather outside police stations and prisons across Caracas, waiting to greet their loved ones. When the releases never came for their family members, dozens of the women refused to leave, setting up a makeshift encampment directly outside the detention facilities to pressure the government to keep its word.

    For 64 days, Garcia Cano, video journalist Juan Arraez, and photographer Ariana Cubillos shadowed the group, focusing closely on two of the movement’s core participants: Mendoza and Rosales. Arraez even slept overnight in the women’s camp multiple times to document their daily struggles. The pair was chosen for the profile not only because they spent the full two months camped outside the jail, leaving their children and everyday lives behind to advocate for their husbands, but also because their experiences reflect two of the most common household stories across modern Venezuela. Rosales and her husband both worked for the Venezuelan state and were once supporters of the ruling party, living in a community that once benefited from government investment. Mendoza and her husband, by contrast, were entirely apolitical, relying on a single private-sector income to get by. What began as a shared struggle between two strangers grew into a deep, unbreakable friendship over the course of the protest.

    Before January 2025, open public dissent of this kind was unthinkable in Venezuela. In the chaotic aftermath of the disputed 2024 presidential election, Maduro’s government ordered the mass detention of more than 2,000 people, many of whom had never even participated in anti-government protests. The crackdown left the public terrified and cowed into silence, with no space for open opposition. This makes the women’s sit-in all the more unprecedented: they are the first group to openly challenge the ruling establishment in the post-Maduro era.

    Most of the women leading the protest were quiet, reserved housewives who had never taken part in any form of political activism before. They put aside warnings from friends and family that they would be arrested, overcame their own fear, and stepped forward to demand the release of their loved ones. For the most part, their gambit paid off: while the government eventually cleared the encampment outside the police station and the women returned to their homes, the protest broke years of official silence around the issue of political detentions. Their fight is far from over, however: Mendoza and Rosales still continue their advocacy to free their husbands.

    Beyond the politics, Garcia Cano emphasized that the story is as much about female solidarity as it is about protest. Over the 64 days of the demonstration, the women grew from wary, suspicious strangers into a close-knit support network. They learned together how to organize, how to speak to reporters and lawmakers, how to navigate the confusing bureaucracy of Venezuela’s prison system. They comforted each other through moments of despair, celebrated small victories together, and shared their deepest fears, hopes for the future, and struggles as parents.

    AP’s full-length feature on the women’s 64-day protest is available now, and readers can find more coverage of Latin American and Caribbean politics at AP’s dedicated regional hub.

  • Two women risked everything after US raid to protest Venezuela’s detentions of their husbands

    Two women risked everything after US raid to protest Venezuela’s detentions of their husbands

    In the frigid pre-dawn hours of Valentine’s Day this year, a small group of weary women huddled outside the gates of a Caracas detention center, straining to hear every name a police officer shouted into the dark night. With each call, a gaunt detainee stumbled out into the tearful embrace of waiting loved ones. When the roll call ended, 15 men and two women—all labeled political prisoners—had walked free. But for Mileidy Mendoza and Sandra Rosales, the moment was heavy with bittersweet tension: their husbands’ names never came.

    What began as two isolated women’s quiet agony over detained spouses grew into a grassroots movement that would test the new post-Nicolás Maduro Venezuelan government’s commitments to political reform under intense U.S. and international pressure. It is a story of unexpected sisterhood, relentless courage, and the unfinished struggle to secure freedom for more than 400 political prisoners still held behind bars.

    Neither Mendoza nor Rosales had any prior political organizing experience before their husbands’ arrests last November. Mendoza, a 30-year-old stay-at-home mother who sold handcrafts to supplement her driver husband’s income, lived quietly in western Caracas with her two children. Rosales, a 37-year-old elementary school teacher, raised four kids in Valencia, a once-booming industrial city north-central Venezuela. Both were apolitical; Rosales and her husband, Dionnys Quintero, an explosives technician for Venezuela’s intelligence service, had even long supported the ruling socialist party. When both men were arrested in November and accused of collaborating with U.S.-backed opposition factions to plant a bomb in a central Caracas plaza, neither woman was given official confirmation of the detentions for weeks, and no visitors or phone calls were allowed. The Venezuelan government never responded to requests for comment on the arrests.

    Their shared predicament drew them together after the January 3 U.S. military operation that captured and removed Maduro from power. Under direct pressure from the Trump administration to restore civil liberties, the interim government led by acting President Delcy Rodríguez announced it would free jailed political dissidents, sparking hope for hundreds of families with loved ones detained under Maduro’s authoritarian rule. Mendoza, who had already spent weeks trekking between detention centers searching for her husband Eric Díaz, learned he was being held at a Calle Mara police station, a dead-end street in an industrial Caracas neighborhood, alongside dozens of other political prisoners.

    Mendoza and a handful of other wives traveled to the station expecting to reunite with their husbands that day. When no releases happened, they refused to leave. They set up a makeshift camp on the sidewalk with just a few fleece blankets; local businesses and residents stepped in to donate foam cushions, water, electricity, and bathroom access. Within days, the camp grew to 30 women, most of them wives and mothers of detained dissidents, who transformed the dead-end street into a permanent protest site. Rosales joined the movement shortly after it began, and she and Mendoza quickly became close collaborators: Rosales’ calm, rational balance tempered Mendoza’s fiery, unapologetic passion, and the pair forged a sisterhood that extended beyond their shared fight. “We are much more than comrades; we are a family,” Mendoza said.

    As the protest gained international attention, the government made its first concession: it allowed the women their first in-person visits, officially confirming the detainees were being held at the site. What the women saw during that January 27 visit shocked them: their loved ones were pale, gaunt, and had aged dramatically in custody. Male detainees were forced to wear baby blue uniforms—the official color of opposition leader María Corina Machado’s party, which the government accuses of plotting the bomb attack—an intentional branding the women saw as part of the regime’s repression.

    Far from quelling the protest, the visit only strengthened the women’s resolve. Rejecting offers of limited, regular visitation as insufficient, they doubled down: they met with lawmakers debating an amnesty bill for political prisoners, filed court paperwork, met with legal teams, and held round-the-clock prayer vigils. After more than a month of camping outside the station, 10 women launched a hunger strike to force further action. Mendoza lasted five days without food before dehydration, heart palpitations, and dizziness forced her to end the strike and receive medical care; Rosales lasted two days. The strike concluded on the 42nd day of the protest, with only one woman outlasting Mendoza by a matter of hours.

    Two weeks after the hunger strike, the first major breakthrough came on Valentine’s Day, when the government released 17 prisoners. Two more releases followed on March 7, when 25 more men walked free. But each release left Mendoza and Rosales with the same hollow disappointment: their husbands remained in custody. Shortly after the March releases, the women learned their spouses had been transferred to a notoriously harsh prison outside Caracas, a facility long known for sweltering temperatures, systematic physical and psychological abuse, and inadequate food supplies. The women suspected the transfer was retaliation for their high-profile protest.

    After 64 days of continuous camping outside the Calle Mara police station, the remaining core of the movement folded their tents and suspended the site protest, shifting into a waiting game. Two weeks later, they were granted a new visit at the outlying prison, this time allowed to bring their children. On Easter Sunday, April 5, the women traveled by bus to the facility, each carrying small comforts for their husbands: Mendoza brought popcorn and fried plantains, her husband’s favorite snacks, while Rosales brought a sheet cake to celebrate her eldest daughter’s birthday and her own, which fell that very day. The four-hour visit was filled with small updates on school, dental appointments, and family life, but the women left with a clear promise: they would not abandon their fight. They just needed time to regroup.

    To date, human rights groups confirm more than 400 political prisoners remain in Venezuelan custody, and the government has not responded to repeated requests for comment on its plans for future releases. The Trump administration has praised the interim government’s pledge to free detainees, but critics note releases have been selective, falling far short of the full amnesty activists and family members demand. For Mendoza, Rosales, and the other women of the Calle Mara camp, the fight is far from over. “We must continue fighting for our goal, which is the release of all of them,” Mendoza said. “Not one, not two, not 17, but all of them.”