Each morning Magalli Meda savours the sunrise. She wakes early, sips her coffee and breathes in the fresh aroma of mangoes hanging from a nearby tree.
A symphony of animals — squirrels, macaws and roosters — provides the soundtrack for the start of her day, as the dark silhouette of Caracas’s best-known peak, Cerro El Avila, looms on the horizon.
The sights and sounds are a daily solace she’s found amid the bleakness of her confinement.
“It’s something the regime hasn’t been able to take away from us,” Meda said.
For a year, Meda and four other members of Venezuela’s opposition coalition — Pedro Urruchurtu, Omar Gonzalez, Humberto Villalobos and Claudia Macero — have been trapped in the Argentine embassy in Caracas, fearing repression on the other side of its walls.
Thursday marks the first anniversary of their confinement. Since March 20, 2024, their world has been limited to the 3,850 square metres of the diplomatic residence.
They can venture outside into the garden or onto the balcony, but no further. Outside the tall white gate, Venezuelan authorities patrol the street, and there is surveillance perched in nearby buildings.
They aren’t allowed visitors, water is scarce, and with limited electricity, much of their food has spoiled.
Stepping outside the embassy would mean certain arrest. The Venezuelan government has accused them of crimes such as treason and conspiracy — charges they deny.
Instead, they say they are being targeted for their opposition to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, a leader accused of human rights abuses including arbitrary detention and torture.
“The regime long ago turned this embassy into a prison,” Meda said. “We aren’t asylum seekers. We’re hostages.”