Giles Tremlett

A young Caracas student, Jesús Piñero, recounts being shot during a robbery in 2016 and surviving despite widespread fear, collapsing public services and the stigma that gunshot victims often face in Venezuelan hospitals. His family secured medical supplies the hospital lacked, and he ultimately recovered while the attacker was later killed under local barrio justice. The story reflects the dangers of daily life in Petare, the broader collapse of Venezuela under Maduro and the lasting psychological impact of violence. Having rebuilt his life, Piñero now teaches, is completing a PhD, supports his mother and views the shooting as both a personal turning point and a symbolic mark of the Chavista era.

An archival audio investigation revisits the story of Elvira and her brothers, Ricard and Ramón, who were abandoned at a Barcelona train station as young children. Decades later, Elvira’s attempt to find their missing parents uncovers a complex and unexpected family history involving possible organised crime.

A nine-year-old girl, Nada Itrab, was kidnapped from Spain and taken to Bolivia. Authorities feared she had died, but she was found alive in the rainforest nine months later, beginning a further ordeal that is explored in the podcast.

Juan Carlos seeks to return from exile and restore his reputation despite longstanding scandals involving financial irregularities, tax issues and controversial ties to Saudi money. Newly declassified documents about the 1981 coup confirm his role in stopping the insurrection but reveal large gaps in the historical record due to missing or destroyed materials. Investigative journalists argue that Spain’s outdated secrecy laws have enabled the removal of crucial documents, raising concerns about political obstruction of reform. While Juan Carlos’s defenders highlight his contribution to safeguarding democracy, questions about his finances and the opaque handling of state records continue to complicate efforts to reassess his legacy.

A nine-year-old girl kidnapped from Spain and taken to Bolivia survived nine months of abuse and forced labor before being rescued in a complex cross‑border operation. Now an adult, she is rebuilding her life, pursuing legal studies, and working with a journalist to advocate for trafficking victims while confronting unresolved trauma and the failures of authorities who placed her back into an unsafe home environment. Her story has drawn renewed public attention, revived media interest in a book and documentary, and strengthened her resolve to campaign internationally against child trafficking.

Franco’s long dictatorship is described as violent, repressive and socially regressive, built on purges, censorship, autarky and enforced political apathy. Despite widespread hardship, later economic improvements and decades of educational silence have allowed some Spaniards, especially younger generations, to view the regime too positively. The text warns that historical ignorance remains pervasive and argues that confronting and teaching the realities of Francoism is essential to prevent the normalization of authoritarianism.

In 1990, the body of a young woman was discovered in a small Spanish town near the French border. The effort to establish her identity became a decades-long local obsession, lasting roughly 30 years.

A young woman found hanged near Portbou, Spain, in 1990 remained unidentified for over 30 years until a 2022 television broadcast led to her recognition as 19‑year‑old Italian student Evi Rauter. Renewed scrutiny of case photographs raised doubts about the original suicide ruling, with forensic experts questioning whether she could have positioned herself on the tree without assistance. Her disappearance in Florence the day before, the loss of her belongings, and the distance to Portbou further deepened suspicion. Although Italian authorities briefly opened a murder investigation, Spanish courts declined to reopen the case due to the statute of limitations. Efforts in 2023–24 to recover her embalmed body from a communal grave failed when it could not be located. Her family continues to seek clarity about her final hours, while the site of her death has become an informal memorial.

The podcast revisits Operation Condor, a collaboration among eight US-backed South American military dictatorships during the 1970s and 1980s to pursue political opponents across borders through kidnapping, torture, rape and murder. It examines the conspiracy’s legacy and notes that some perpetrators are finally facing justice.

An archived audio feature examines the 2019 raid on North Korea’s embassy in Madrid, where armed men took a North Korean official hostage and demanded that he defect. When he refused, the plot collapsed and the attackers fled; the report investigates who they were and why they undertook the operation.

A reissued audio long read tells how Maixabel Lasa, whose husband was murdered by Basque separatists, received a message from one of his killers a decade later requesting a meeting. The story explores the resulting relationship, grief, accountability and the possibility of reconciliation after ETA-related violence.

A decade after her husband was killed by Basque separatists, Maixabel Lasa received a message from one of the men responsible, who wanted to meet her. The podcast explores the tragic circumstances and the unexpected friendship that followed.

A former ETA member, Luis Carrasco, seeks to take responsibility for his role in the 2000 assassination of Basque politician Juan Mari Jáuregui, leading to an unprecedented restorative-justice process with the victim’s widow, Maixabel Lasa. After years in prison and growing disillusionment with ETA’s violence, Carrasco renounces the group and requests a mediated meeting, which Lasa agrees to in hopes of fostering accountability and reshaping how Basque society confronts its violent past. Their first encounter evolves into an ongoing relationship marked by candor, remorse, and Lasa’s determination to promote reconciliation. As ETA dissolves and political dynamics shift, the struggle over historical memory intensifies, with Lasa urging broader acknowledgment of wrongdoing and Carrasco striving to rebuild his life while confronting the harm he caused.

Elvira and her brothers, Ricard and Ramón, were abandoned at a Barcelona train station when they were aged two, four and five. Decades later, Elvira searches for their missing parents and uncovers a startling family history involving organised crime.

Three siblings abandoned in a Barcelona train station in 1984 grew up unaware of their origins until Elvira, the youngest, launched a DNA‑assisted search that revealed a complex past tied to criminal activity in France and Spain. With help from volunteers, she traced her biological family to Madrid and Seville, learning her parents disappeared in 1983 after a life marked by high‑risk crime and sudden flight. Reuniting with extended relatives filled longstanding gaps in identity, but the fate of her parents remains unresolved as she continues investigating leads from France and Spain.

In 2021, a security guard in Spain stormed into his workplace and shot four people. Although he was arrested after being badly injured and faced a forthcoming trial, his victims would never see him punished. The case tested the limits of justice and raised questions about whether a mass shooter could demand an assisted or “good” death.

A Spanish security guard, Marin Eugen Sabau, shot four coworkers in Tarragona before being severely wounded by police. As he faced paralysis and intense chronic pain, he requested euthanasia under Spain’s recently enacted law, prompting a legal clash between his right to end unbearable suffering and his victims’ demands for a criminal trial. Courts ultimately ruled that medical autonomy outweighed victims’ interests, allowing the procedure to proceed. Sabau died by euthanasia with his organs donated, leaving unresolved questions about police conduct, corporate responsibility, and the ethical implications of euthanasia rights for violent offenders while victims continued to struggle with trauma and the absence of formal justice.

The live coverage reports that nearly 100 children were verified by UNICEF as killed in Ukraine in April, with the true toll likely higher, while one in six UNICEF-supported schools in eastern Ukraine had been damaged or destroyed. The UN Human Rights Council voted to investigate alleged abuses by Russian forces, including unlawful killings and reported filtration centers, as more than six million people had fled Ukraine and eight million were displaced internally. Ukraine’s first Russian war-crimes trial was due to begin in Kyiv, involving soldier Vadim Shysimarin. Finland’s leaders announced plans to seek NATO membership, prompting Russian threats of retaliatory measures and possible gas cutoffs; Sweden was expected to follow. EU leaders planned to assess Ukraine’s membership application in June. The coverage also describes negotiations to evacuate wounded Azovstal fighters, efforts to unblock Ukrainian grain exports, a blocked US$40 billion Ukraine aid package in the US Senate, and claims that Ukrainian forces damaged a Russian logistics ship in the Black Sea.

Polish authorities continue to detain journalist Pablo González on suspicion of working for Russia’s GRU, extending his custody as prosecutors review evidence they claim supports espionage charges. His family, colleagues and lawyer reject the allegations and call for his release, raising concerns about press freedom amid the war in Ukraine. Spanish intelligence had previously questioned his wife, and Ukrainian authorities had advised him to leave the country before the invasion. Press advocacy groups urge Poland to provide transparency and ensure his rights are upheld.

Foreign volunteers heading to Ukraine are compared with the International Brigades of the Spanish civil war, highlighting parallels between past struggles against fascism and Ukraine’s current fight against Russian aggression. The article explores motivations, risks and historical lessons for modern volunteers, noting dangers such as battlefield casualties, legal barriers and potential mistreatment as prisoners. It emphasizes that moral conviction drove earlier volunteers despite the eventual victory of Franco, and suggests similar sentiments animate today’s recruits. Figures from history illustrate the moral complexity of taking up arms, while the legacy of resisting authoritarianism underscores the continuing relevance of the slogan “no pasarán.”