Diane Wilson, a member of the activism group Code Pink, was arrested Wednesday afternoon in Washington, according to the organization’s official Twitter account.
Wilson, a Texas shrimp boat captain in her sixties, has been regularly demonstrating outside of the White House in an effort to raise awareness of the 166 Gitmo detainees who remain held at the detention facility in Cuba more than four years after President Barack Obama promised to close the prison. Eighty-six of those inmates have been cleared for release, and more than 100 have been participating in a hunger strike that started this past February.
As an act of solidarity with the detainees who have engaged in a month-long hunger strike, Wilson has been fasting for 57 days.
Wilson and other members of Code Pink began demonstrating outside the White House just after 12 noon on Wednesday. Word of her arrest circulated quickly over the internet around one hour later.
Jodi Evans, a fellow co-founder of the group, tweeted that Wilson was arrested shortly after climbing over the White House fence in order to demand the detainees’ release. Photos have since spread of Wilson standing on the lawn of the property. Other images show Evans laying on the grass as armed police and guard dogs race to the scene.
