Case History: Saúl Méndez
On 23 January 2016, human rights defenders Mr Saúl Méndez was released after being arbitrarily detained for over two years. Saúl Méndez was originally detained on 27 August 2013, together with Mr Rogelio Velásquez, on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations of murder and femicide.
Saúl Méndez is a human rights defender from Santa Cruz Barillas in Huehuetenango, western Guatemala, who has been working to prevent the installation of a hydroelectric power plant by the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz on the lands of the Maya-q'anjob'al indigenous community.
This company is alleged to have used persons with links to the military, paramilitaries and organised crime as security agents, a number of whom are believed to have been involved in physical attacks, threats and killings. A consultation process in which 40,000 residents of Santa Cruz Barillas expressed their opposition to the project was carried out in 2007, and has since been steadfastly ignored.
On 23 January 2016, human rights defenders Mr Saúl Méndez and Mr Rogelio Velásquez were released after being arbitrarily detained for over two years.
The two human rights defenders, from Santa Cruz Barillas in Huehuetenango, western Guatemala, have been working to prevent the installation of a hydroelectric power plant by the Spanish company Hidro Santa Cruz on the lands of the Maya-q'anjob'al indigenous community. Méndez and Velásquez have led their communities in voicing their disagreement with the mega-project, amid allegations of various violations of human and environmental rights in the process of the projects' development.
The human rights defenders were released following the lapsing of the period for appeal of a ruling by the Tribunal de Sentencia Penal de Delitos de Femicidio y otras Formas de Violencia contra la Mujer de Quetzaltenango (Criminal Court for Sentencing of Crimes of Femicide and other Forms of Violence against Women of Quetzaltenango), that acquitted Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez of all charges in a retrial. The decision was issued on 28 October 2015, in a trial that began on 11 September 2015.
Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez had been detained along with fellow human rights defenders Messrs Arturo Pablo Juan, Sotero Adalberto Villatoro Hernández, Francisco Juan Pedro and Bernardo Ermitaño López Reyes, who remain in detention.
Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez were originally detained on 27 August 2013, on the basis of unsubstantiated accusations of murder and femicide. Despite there being no evidence to suggest their involvement, they were sentenced to 33 years in prison in November 2014. An appeal was lodged by their defence lawyers to the Sala Séptima de Apelaciones de Huehuetenango (Seventh Court of Appeals of Huehuetenango) in May 2015, which resulted in the annulment of the sentence and the ordering of a retrial.
On 11 September 2015, human rights defenders Mr Saúl Méndez and Mr Rogelio Velásquez appeared before the Tribunal de Sentencia Penal de Delitos de Femicidio y otras Formas de Violencia contra la Mujer de Quetzaltenango (Criminal Court for Sentencing of Crimes of Femicide and other Forms of Violence against Women of Quetzaltenango) in the fifth hearing of the trial against them. The trial began on 1 September 2015, and will continue until 28 October 2015. The human rights defenders maintain that they are innocent.
The human rights defenders have led their communities in voicing their disagreement with the mega-project which they feel is being forced upon them with the cooperation of state security forces, amid allegations of various violations of human and environmental rights in the process of the projects' development.
Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez are detained along with fellow human rights defenders Messrs Arturo Pablo Juan, Sotero Adalberto Villatoro Hernández, Francisco Juan Pedro and Bernardo Ermitaño López Reyes, regarding whose situation Front Line Defenders has already expressed serious concern. Additionally, it is further reported that human rights defenders Messrs Rigoberto Juárez Mateo, Domingo Baltazar, Fausto Sánchez Roblero, Lorenzo Ramírez Rodríguez, Alfonso Chilel Hernández and José Mauricio López Escobar are also being detained in preventive detention due to their opposition to the activities of Hidro Santa Cruz. In all of these cases, the complainant is Hidro Santa Cruz, either directly or indirectly through associates.
Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez were originally detained on 27 August 2013 based on unsubstantiated accusations of murder and femicide in events which occurred in 2010. Despite there being no evidence to suggest their involvement, they were sentenced to 33 years in prison in November 2014. An appeal was lodged by their defence lawyers to the Sala Séptima de Apelaciones de Huehuetenango (Seventh Court of Appeals of Huehuetenango) in May 2015, which resulted in the annulment of the sentence and the ordering of a retrial. However, they were not released due to the gravity of the charges against them.
The human rights defenders were previously detained on 2 May 2012 along with nine other community leaders on spurious charges of terrorism, incitement to commit a crime, threats and coercion. Their detention was found to be arbitrary by the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. They were held for nine months until 9 January 2013 when they were released due to lack of evidence. Nonetheless, a number of fellow human rights defenders were forced to confess to less serious charges and were released on bail. Saúl Méndez and Rogelio Velásquez were re-arrested on 27 August 2013 while they were attending the final hearing in one of the trials against their fellow human rights defenders.
