Intimidation against human right defender Rigoberto Lobo
On the afternoon of 11 May 2017, Rigoberto Lobo Puentes, was outside the Judicial Circuit of the state of Mérida, Venezuela, when he was intimidated by a group of twenty members of the Criminalistic, Penal and Scientific Investigation Body (CICPC).
Rigoberto Lobo Puentes is a former member of Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes – ODHULA (Observatory of Human Rights of the University of Los Andes), where he specialised in monitoring demonstrations and accompanying victims of human rights violations through the judicial process. In January 2017, he founded the organisation Promoción, Educación y Defensa en Derechos Humanos – PROMEDEHUM (Promotion, Education and Defence of Human Rights) which focuses on assisting victims of human rights violations, mainly in Mérida. The organisation is also involved in workshops and lectures to civil society on various issues related to the use of lawful and peaceful means to denounce human rights violations. Since 2014, Rigoberto Lobo Puentes has regularly been subjected to police harassment, intimidation, and anonymous threats against him and members of his family due to his work as a human rights defender.
On the afternoon of 11 May 2017, Rigoberto Lobo Puentes, was outside the Judicial Circuit of the state of Mérida, Venezuela, when he was intimidated by a group of twenty members of the Criminalistic, Penal and Scientific Investigation Body (CICPC).
Rigoberto Lobo Puentes is a former member of Observatorio de Derechos Humanos de la Universidad de Los Andes – ODHULA (Observatory of Human Rights of the University of Los Andes), where he specialised in monitoring demonstrations and accompanying victims of human rights violations through the judicial process. In January 2017, he founded the organisation Promoción, Educación y Defensa en Derechos Humanos – PROMEDEHUM (Promotion, Education and Defence of Human Rights) which focuses on assisting victims of human rights violations, mainly in Mérida. The organisation is also involved in workshops and lectures to civil society on various issues related to the use of lawful and peaceful means to denounce human rights violations. Since 2014, Rigoberto Lobo Puentes has regularly been subjected to police harassment, intimidation, and anonymous threats against him and members of his family due to his work as a human rights defender.
On the afternoon of 11 May 2017, the human rights defender was outside the Judicial Circuit of the state of Mérida in front of the headquarters of the CICPC, along with several students and some relatives of young people who had been detained for demonstrating. The relatives of the detained were requesting to speak with the judge of the case in order to know when they would be released. Rigoberto Lobo Puentes was monitoring this protest of no more than fifteen people from a distance, when approximately twenty CICPC officials approached and drew their weapons. The human rights defender was on a phone call and one of the officials approached him, pointed his gun at him and told him to refrain from using the phone and from taking pictures or videos.
Front Line Defenders is concerned about this most recent act of intimidation carried out against Rigoberto Lobo Puentes and others protesting in front of the CICPC office, since it believes that the acts were carried out solely as a result of their legitimate and peaceful work in the defence of human rights. Front Line Defenders reminds the government of Venezuela that states should guarantee their citizens’ freedom to publish and disseminate views, information and knowledge on human rights violations.
