IRTF News

Living and working in a rural hamlet called La Gabarra, young community journalist Jorge Méndez, known as “Yeiko the leader,” had 650,000 followers on Facebook. Because his home region along the Venezuelan border had such a negative public image due to years of armed violence, Jorge started the page "La Gabarra con una imagen diferente," with content that was positive and favorable to the region.

In a country dangerous for social leaders and journalists, Jorge Méndez sadly became another victim. On the morning of June 27, Jorge was traveling along a road in a rural zone of Tibú, Norte de Santander Department. Local residents later found his car abandoned and alerted the police. They began a search and found his body with multiple bullet wounds and signs of torture.

After learning of his assassination, a social leader from La Gabarra commented: “He was a young dreamer, a young man who wanted to show a different image of La Gabarra, show its resilience, show the beautiful things, its people, its landscapes, its nature, he sought to remove that stigmatization of La Gabarra, which for many years [from] the outside looked like that image of violence that has plagued it for years…”

Jorge Méndez, ¡presente!

The pattern of persecution against anti-corruption defenders in Guatemala must end.

As head of the Special Prosecutor’s Office Against Impunity (FECI), former public prosecutor Virginia Laparra had led investigations into corruption and large-scale crime. While leaving her office in Quetzaltenango on February 23, 2022, she was arrested, detained and arraigned on trumped up charges. She spent almost two years in pretrial detention. On July 8—without sufficient evidence or due process of law—Virginia Laparra was convicted of disclosure of confidential information and sentenced to five years (commutable at the rate of 5 quetzales per day) and a fine of 50,000 quetzales (approximately US$6,500). In addition, the conviction bars her from practicing law for five years and disqualifies her from holding public office for ten years.

Her conviction on July 8 is part of an ongoing pattern of criminalization of human rights defenders, journalists and others who have been fighting against corruption and impunity to make the mechanisms of justice possible. Because of the ongoing climate of persecution of anti-corruption law defenders, Virginia Laparra announced on July 18 that she would flee the country. Her exile means that she will join more than 50 other members of the judiciary, journalists, Indigenous leaders and others who have fled the country (2019-2023) after denouncing harassment against them by the Public Ministry.

Nolvia Alberta Obando Turcios,  a respected Christian pastor and leader of the Las Galileas Women’s Rural Movement in the La Bomba community of Jutiapa, Atlántida Department, is being falsely criminalized and persecuted through irregular judicial proceedings. 

Nolvia Obando is scheduled for trial on charges of land usurpation on August 12. She and 60 other members of the women’s farming cooperative were evicted from land disputed by a private landholder in March 2023. She spent five months in pretrial detention, released only after paying a $2,000 bail.  Both before and after her arrest, Nolvia Obando has suffered many human rights violations, including defamation and stigmatization from police authorities and news agencies who baselessly claim that Las Galileas is a criminal gang engaged in terrorist activities.

The criminalization of Noliva Obando is part of a larger attack of systemic criminalization against women’s rights workers and land defenders.  In its 2024 Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Honduras, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) warned: “The use of criminal offenses such as incitement to violence, usurpation, insults and slander are the most commonly used to criminalize human rights defenders, especially those who defend the environment, land and territory. ” The judicial process has violated Nolvia Obando’s procedural rights and has done harm to her personal, emotional, and mental integrity.

Her defense attorney is concerned that the proceedings have been prejudicial against Noliva Obando. IRTF is urging that authorities investigate the possible complicity of judges, magistrates, police, and the Public Prosecutor’s office with the private landholder of the disputed territory of Las Galileas.

Because of the violent history associated with large-scale mining operations in their communities, Tolupán Indigenous residents in Yoro Department are anxious and fearful because of renewed illegal mining in San Francisco de Locomapa. In recent years, many Tolupán defenders in Yoro have been harassed, threatened, criminalized and even killed. In January 2024, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) expanded protective measures to include a total of 97 members of the Tolupán community in San Francisco de Locomapa. This underscores the severe risks they face. 

The main culprit had been the US-owned Lachansa mining company, which in theory has now left the area. They have a reputation of creating  armed groups to generate violence and intimidate residents opposed to his company’s mining operations. It is deeply concerning that despite legal actions filed against the owners of Lachansa and the company’s supposed exit from the community, illegal mining operations are recurring.  The more recent illegal mining of antimony is  spearheaded by people who have been linked to previous unlawful mining activities. The mining is occurring without the free, prior, and informed consent (FPIC) of the Tolupán community, violating their fundamental rights and sovereignty over their ancestral lands. The devastating environmental impacts of open-pit mining are of great concern to the Tolupán communities. 

Because of his bold leadership in protecting the Wayuu people, Javier Rojas Uriana has suffered many reprisals: assassination attempts, death threats, slander, and trumped-up legal charges. For more than a decade, Javier Rojas Uriana has denounced the humanitarian crisis facing the Wayúu people, the largest Indigenous community in Colombia. Where they live in La Guajira, the department with the highest prevalence of food insecurity, extreme climate phenomena have been causing droughts and heatwaves, affecting food staples such as rice and corn. Their economy—based on artisanal fishing, sheep and goat breeding, and handicraft production—has been disrupted. Child malnutrition is reaching alarming levels.

On July 2 while he was in Valledupar, the capital city of Cesar Department, Javier Rojas Uriana suffered an assassination attempt when assailants targeted him with an explosive device.  Fortunately, he was not injured in the vicious attack. We are urging that the National Protection Unit (UNP) review and reinforce its protection measures for Javier Rojas Uriana and his family, in strict accordance with their wishes.