标签： South America

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina – Nearly two months after walking free from a Venezuelan prison following 448 days of detention on disputed political charges, Argentine national Nahuel Gallo is urging the international community to ramp up pressure on Venezuela’s interim government to secure the release of hundreds of people still jailed for political motives.

The 35-year-old was released on March 1, more than 14 months after he was arrested at a Venezuelan immigration checkpoint in December 2024 while traveling to meet his Venezuelan partner and their toddler son. At the time of his arrest, the country was still under the control of now-ousted former President Nicolás Maduro, who leveled accusations of espionage and terrorist activity against Gallo that he has repeatedly denied.

Gallo shared a harrowing account of his detention in exclusive comments to the Associated Press, detailing systematic abuse and inhumane conditions he endured while held at the Rodeo I prison. From his initial interrogation by Venezuelan military counterintelligence agents to his eventual release, Gallo described a pattern of violence, psychological torment, and neglect that still haunts him months after gaining freedom.

Upon his arrest, agents found WhatsApp conversations between Gallo and his partner discussing Venezuela’s volatile political and economic situation, which prompted immediate accusations of dissent. When a search of his phone uncovered contacts linked to Argentine judicial agencies, officers labeled him a spy outright. Gallo recalled being threatened with death, with a gun pressed to his skull and a Taser held to his body as agents threatened to throw him from a moving truck during interrogations. He said he was repeatedly beaten and kicked while handcuffed in the early days of his custody.

Nearly three weeks after his arrest, then-Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab publicly announced formal charges that Gallo had participated in “terrorist actions” against the Maduro government.

Transferred to Rodeo I prison to serve out his pre-trial detention, Gallo faced conditions that tested his ability to survive. As a foreign detainee, he was barred from receiving any outside visits, and he was cut off from all contact with Argentine consular officials for more than a year. He was given only limited access to medical care, and all inmates were restricted to just a few minutes per day for bathing, washing clothing, and using restroom facilities. Prison guards regularly sprayed detained people with pepper spray as punishment and intimidation, according to Gallo’s account.

It was only after a full year of detention and a sustained hunger strike that Gallo was finally allowed his first phone call with his partner. For him, the worst abuse was not the violence inflicted on him directly, but the helplessness of watching other prisoners tortured nearby.

“The greatest torture is seeing something being done to someone else and not being able to do anything,” Gallo said.

Following Maduro’s ouster and capture by U.S. forces in January, interim President Delcy Rodríguez took power and pledged to implement sweeping democratic reforms. Her government has previously denied allegations of systematic human rights abuses in Venezuelan prisons. This week, National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez – the interim president’s brother – announced plans to release 300 detainees, a number that includes many detainees classified as political prisoners by international human rights organizations.

Despite this announced reform, critics warn that hundreds of people remain behind bars solely for their political views, a reality that leads Gallo to argue Venezuela’s old repressive system remains largely intact. Even after his release, Gallo says he still feels imprisoned until every one of his former fellow inmates is freed.

“I think we’re still imprisoned until our fellow inmates are freed,” Gallo said. Before he left Rodeo I, he recalled, his cellmates shared one simple plea: “Gallo, don’t forget about us.”

That promise has shaped Gallo’s work in the weeks since he returned to Argentina. He has turned to social media to shine a light on the abusive conditions inside Venezuelan prisons and advocate for the release of all remaining political detainees. “The person who’s still inside is waiting for the one who got out to do something,” he explained.

On Thursday, Gallo met with U.S. Ambassador to Argentina Peter Lamelas in Buenos Aires. After the meeting, Lamelas released a statement reaffirming the U.S. position that the former Maduro regime “used the arbitrary detention of foreign citizens as a tool of political repression.”

BOGOTA, Colombia – Fresh deadly inter-communal violence has sparked a major security deployment in southwestern Colombia, after a long-running territorial dispute between two Indigenous groups erupted into open conflict that left multiple people dead and dozens more injured.

On Thursday, violent clashes broke out in a rural zone of Cauca department’s Silvia municipality, pitting the Misak and Nasa Indigenous communities against one another. Both groups have laid overlapping claims to the same parcel of land, a source of simmering tension that has persisted for months. By Friday morning, official preliminary counts put the death toll at seven people, with more than 110 others wounded – most hit by gunfire. Defense Minister Pedro Sánchez cautioned that the number of fatalities and casualties could climb in the coming hours as rescue teams reach isolated areas of the conflict zone.

In response to the violence, Colombian national security forces launched a large-scale deployment to the region on Friday. The national army announced via social media that more than 500 infantry soldiers, backed by air support, have entered the Silvia area to restore public safety for local residents and prevent further escalation of the conflict. The deployment aims to separate the rival groups and create a secure environment for dialogue to resume.

Tensions between the two communities first began to rise in April of this year. Colombia’s state-run National Land Agency has been involved in the dispute since that time, taking part in formal mediation sessions and technical working groups designed to resolve ambiguity over the official territorial boundaries between the two Indigenous groups. In the wake of Thursday’s violence, the agency repeated its call for both communities to set down weapons and return to the negotiating table to resolve their differences through peaceful dialogue rather than armed confrontation.

The violence drew swift international reaction: the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights’ Colombia mission released a statement Thursday calling for an immediate end to hostilities and urging national authorities to launch a full investigation into the violence, holding all those responsible for deaths and injuries legally accountable.

The region where the clashes occurred already faces significant security challenges, with multiple illegal armed factions active across Cauca department. Among these active groups are dissident units of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) that refused to disarm under the terms of the landmark 2016 national peace agreement with the Colombian government. These armed groups often exacerbate local tensions over land and resources to extend their own control over territory in remote rural areas.

Decades of fragile, strained relations between the United States and Cuba have plunged to new lows in recent weeks, following a series of aggressive moves by the second Trump administration that have put the Caribbean nation on high alert for potential military intervention.

Since his return to the White House, US President Donald Trump has openly stated his goal of ousting Cuba’s current ruling leadership, even speculating publicly that the island’s government is on the brink of collapse. In March, he claimed Cuba was mired in deep crisis and teased the possibility of a so-called “friendly takeover” of the country. While no formal military invasion plans have been announced, heightened surveillance activity in the region has amplified Cuban anxieties. Over the past seven days, US military aircraft have intentionally kept their flight transponders active while operating near Cuban airspace, broadcasting their positions publicly on global flight-tracking platforms. Dr. Steve Wright, a UK-based expert in unmanned aerial and surveillance technology, called the choice to leave transponders enabled almost certainly intentional, noting the move is designed to send an unambiguous message that US intelligence maintains constant oversight of the island as it ramps up pressure.

The most provocative recent US action came this week, when federal prosecutors unsealed an unprecedented murder and conspiracy indictment against 94-year-old Raúl Castro, Cuba’s former president and the symbolic “Leader of the Cuban Revolution.” The charges stem from a 1996 incident in which Cuban fighter jets shot down two small civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Miami-based Cuban exile group. Four people, three of them US citizens, were killed in the incident. Washington has long maintained the planes were shot down over international waters, while Cuba has consistently argued the aircraft entered its sovereign airspace after repeated incursions that posed a national security threat. Along with Raúl Castro, five other Cuban figures face charges including conspiracy to kill US nationals, murder, and destruction of US aircraft; a conviction could carry a life sentence or the death penalty. Acting US Attorney General Todd Blanche said the charges reflected that the US “does not, and will not, forget its citizens,” but Cuban leaders have denounced the indictment as a baseless political gambit to justify military action. Cuba’s current president Miguel Díaz-Canel called the prosecution “a political manoeuvre, devoid of any legal foundation,” reaffirming that the 1996 downing was a legitimate act of self-defense within Cuban national waters.

Experts and Cuban officials note the indictment is a deliberate strike at the heart of Cuba’s ruling structure. While Díaz-Canel formally holds both the presidency and leadership of the Cuban Communist Party, the Castro name remains the most powerful symbolic and political force on the island, commanding deep loyalty within the military and security services that dominate Cuban politics and economics. Raúl Castro, who led the country from 2008 to 2018 after decades as defense minister under his older brother Fidel, remains the figurehead of the 1959 revolution that established the island’s anti-imperialist, one-party communist system. The Cuban military’s sprawling conglomerate GAESA controls most of the island’s key economic assets, underpinning the power of the ruling political-military elite. In a recent video address to the Cuban people, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued that GAESA operates as a “state within a state,” controlled by a corrupt, incompetent elite that blocks reform and any potential rapprochement with the US. Rubio confirmed that the White House prefers a diplomatic resolution to the current standoff, but said Trump retains the right and obligation to respond to any purported US national security threat, adding that the probability of reaching a peaceful agreement is “not high.” Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez has dismissed Rubio’s comments as an attempt to “instigate a military aggression.”

Beyond the legal charges, the most impactful pressure on Cuba has come from a total US oil blockade and sweeping new sanctions that have crippled the island’s already fragile economy. For years, Venezuela and Mexico supplied the vast majority of Cuba’s crude oil and fuel, but both halted shipments after the Trump administration removed Venezuela’s sitting president in January and threatened tariffs on any country that sent petroleum to Havana. Since the blockade was implemented, only one Russian oil tanker has successfully delivered fuel to the island, leaving Cuba facing chronic fuel shortages that have sparked months of widespread, hours-long blackouts across the country. Shortages of food, medicine, and basic goods have also reached crisis levels, forcing hospitals to scale back critical care and forcing schools and government offices to close repeatedly. Public discontent has boiled over into repeated street protests across the capital Havana, including a demonstration this week where demonstrators blocked roads with burning debris and chanted anti-government slogans. This month, the US added new sanctions targeting senior Cuban officials in the energy, defense, finance, and security sectors, accusing them of human rights abuses and corruption.

Washington has also offered $100 million in humanitarian aid to Cuba, but attached strict conditions requiring the aid be distributed through the Catholic Church and independent non-governmental organizations, completely bypassing the Cuban government. The Trump administration says Cuba has rejected the aid, but Rodríguez countered that Cuba does not refuse assistance offered in good faith, and the most meaningful help the US could provide would be lifting the blockade entirely.

Unconfirmed intelligence reports published by US news outlet Axios have further escalated tensions, claiming that Cuba holds roughly 300 combat drones and is planning potential strikes on US targets including the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Key West, Florida, and US naval vessels operating in the region. The report also claimed Iranian military advisors are present in Havana, an allegation Cuban officials have dismissed as part of a fabricated pretext for military intervention. Rodríguez has repeatedly emphasized that Cuba “neither threatens nor desires war” but is fully prepared to repel any external aggression.

Backchannel talks between the two governments were confirmed by both sides in March, but Cuba has so far responded only with formal public condemnation of US actions, characterizing the entire campaign as “collective punishment” of the Cuban people. Two of Cuba’s key international allies, China and Russia, have both spoken out against US actions, with Beijing calling on Washington to end its coercion and threats, and the Kremlin saying the pressure on Cuba “borders on violence.” As the blockade continues and rhetoric hardens on both sides, the Caribbean faces one of its most severe security crises in decades.

Decades after a fateful mid-1990s incident that left four people dead, the shadow of a Cold War-era tragedy has reemerged to roil already strained relations between the United States and Cuba. On Wednesday, U.S. authorities unsealed a grand jury indictment charging former Cuban president Raúl Castro and five other co-defendants with murder over the 1996 shooting down of two civilian aircraft operated by Brothers to the Rescue, a Cuban-American activist group. All four people killed in the incident, including three U.S. citizens, have remained a flashpoint between the two nations for nearly 30 years, and the charges have etched the event back into the collective consciousness of communities in both Havana and Miami.

The announcement comes amid a sharp escalation of pressure from the Trump administration, which has spent years pushing for a regime change in Cuba. The White House has repeatedly called for broad political and economic overhauls on the island, with publicly stated demands including opening the island’s economy to expanded foreign direct investment and removing Russian and Chinese intelligence assets from Cuban territory. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has framed Cuba as an ongoing national security threat to the U.S., and recently warned that the odds of reaching a peaceful diplomatic breakthrough between the two nations remain “not high.” Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has already rejected the charges, dismissing them as a baseless political stunt with no legitimate legal standing.

While global headlines focus on the diplomatic firestorm, most ordinary Cubans on the island have been cut off from the full scope of the news, as the country grapples with crippling 20-hour daily blackouts that have paralyzed daily life. The prolonged power outages stem from a near-total U.S. fuel blockade that has disrupted every sector of the Cuban economy, from public services to residential living. For vulnerable residents of Havana, the crisis has upended basic routines and created life-threatening conditions.

Seventy-something widow Ana Rosa Romero, a retired philosophy teacher who lives in an 11th-floor apartment in Havana’s iconic Granma Dos social housing complex, knows this hardship firsthand. When her husband passed away recently, a neighborhood blackout left her unable to arrange for his body to be moved for hours, forcing her to sit with his remains alone in the dark. These days, with the building’s elevator out of service more often than it runs, Romero says she barely leaves her small apartment. A 70-year-old woman carrying groceries up 11 flights of unlit stairs faces significant fall risks, and uncertainty hangs over every outing: no one knows when the power will cut out, or how long the blackout will last.

“ If you do venture out, it’s with the uncertainty of not knowing what’s coming next. When is the power due to go out? When is it coming back? How many hours are we going to be without electricity?” Romero says. A framed portrait of Fidel Castro hangs on her wall, a quiet reminder of the decades of political upheaval and economic pressure her country has already weathered.

Juana Garcia, the building’s superintendent, says the crisis has hit vulnerable residents the hardest. Nine tenants rely on pacemakers to regulate their heartbeats, and cannot risk being caught in a blackout without power to their devices, or trapped between floors if the elevator cuts out mid-ride. That has forced many to stay confined to their apartments for weeks on end. For six months straight, Garcia has carried or pumped fresh water up multiple flights of dark stairs for more than 100 residents, including bedridden elderly tenants who would go without water entirely without help from neighbors. “It’s dangerous to go up and down these stairs without lights. This is such a difficult situation. We know we’re going through tough times, but it’s sad to see this great building stuck in the darkness,” Garcia said. She holds out hope that the Cuban government will be able to provide solar panels to bring at least small relief to the building’s most vulnerable residents.

Elsewhere in the capital, in the Barrio Toledo neighborhood, Cuban officials are pushing forward with an innovative small-scale project to address the country’s decades-old acute housing crisis, even amid fuel and power shortages. Around 40 decommissioned shipping containers are being repurposed into fully functional two-bedroom homes, each fitted with a kitchen and bathroom. A dozen of the container units are nearly complete, with exterior shipping company logos still visible on the metal walls and new windows cut into the sides. The development will eventually center on a small community playground and a local corner store, but no residents have moved in yet as work proceeds through ongoing supply constraints.

Critics warn that the metal structures will trap unbearable heat during Cuba’s hot, humid summer months. But Orlando Diaz, the site’s foreman and a self-identified committed revolutionary, argues the adaptive reuse project is a practical, well-ventilated solution to a critical housing shortage. “This technique is already being used successfully in other countries,” he notes. “We’re just catching up.” Like many Cubans, Diaz plans to join a government-organized march this Friday to show public support for Raúl Castro and reject the U.S. charges. He describes the indictment as a “vile lie,” and points out that Washington never brought charges against late Cuban-American militant Luis Posada Carriles, who Cuba has long accused of orchestrating the 1973 bombing of a Cuban airliner that killed 73 people.

When asked if he believes the indictment could be a precursor to U.S. military action, similar to the January removal of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces, Diaz is unyielding. “Venezuela is Venezuela, but Cuba is Cuba,” he says defiantly. “And here we don’t lack the necessary courage to face this moment.”

Back on her 11th-floor balcony, Ana Rosa Romero gazes out across Estadio Latinoamericano, the iconic baseball stadium where just over a decade ago she watched then-President Barack Obama and Raúl Castro sit side by side at an exhibition game, a moment that raised hopes of a long-term thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations. Today, she contemplates the prospect of U.S. military intervention on her island, and speaks with the quiet resolve of a person who has lived through generations of crisis. “At my age, I know I’m going to die in Cuba,” she says matter-of-factly. “We’ve faced so many things over the years. And if now we have to face an invasion, then I guess we’ll face that too.”

On Thursday, two shocking acts of violence ripped through different regions of Honduras, leaving a minimum of 24 people dead and sending fresh ripples of concern across the Central American nation already grappling with a generations-long public safety crisis.

The first and deadliest assault unfolded on a remote ranch located on the outskirts of Trujillo, in northern Honduras. Official reports confirm that at least 19 farm workers were gunned down in the attack. As of Friday morning, the full, final death toll for this incident remains unconfirmed. Edgardo Barahona, spokesperson for Honduras’ National Police, told the Associated Press that family members of the victims had already begun recovering and removing victims’ bodies from the crime scene before forensic teams could complete a full count. In a separate briefing with reporters, Honduran Security Minister Gerzon Velasquez offered a different account to Reuters, suggesting that many bodies were likely carried off by either the attackers’ associates or individuals with criminal connections before law enforcement could secure the site.

A second, coordinated shooting took place just hours later in Omoa, a small coastal town sitting hard against Honduras’ northern border with Guatemala. Four active-duty police officers and one civilian were killed in this attack. Authorities confirmed the officers were en route to Omoa from the country’s capital, Tegucigalpa, as part of a pre-planned anti-gang operation when they were ambushed.

To date, no suspects have been taken into custody in connection with either attack. Investigators have not yet established a clear motive for the mass killing of ranch workers in Trujillo, but the region has been a hotspot for simmering, long-running agrarian conflict that has occasionally spilled over into lethal violence for decades.

In response to the back-to-back attacks, Honduras’ National Police released an official statement announcing that it would launch a “direct intervention” operation in both affected regions to restore order and advance investigations.

The violence has cast renewed attention on Honduras’ persistent struggle with violent crime, rooted in widespread gang activity and the country’s strategic role in transnational drug trafficking routes between South American producers and North American consumers. While recent years have seen a gradual decline in the national homicide rate, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights still ranks Honduras as holding the second-highest homicide rate in the Americas, outpaced only by one other nation in the region.