Iduvina Hernandez Batres
Iduvina Estalinova Hernández Batres is an activist and human rights defender who has tirelessly fought for human rights and justice in her native Guatemala. In 1984, she was forced into exile in Mexico after the death of her colleague. In Mexico, she worked as a journalist, a career she continued when she returned to Guatemala. After the signing of the Peace Accords in Guatemala in 1996, Iduvina worked on a project of conflict transformation. Then, in 1999 she began to work with the Myrna Mack Foundation and with the Commission on Historical Clarification. She is currently the Director of the Iduvina Estalinova Hernández Batres is an activist and human rights defender who has tirelessly fought for human rights and justice in her native Guatemala. She has extensively studied the reform of the Guatemalan intelligence services, which were responsible for many human rights abuses during the civil war. She is also a frequent contributor to the online news agency Plaza Publica. Iduvina has received threats of violence due to the nature of her work, but continues to advocate for accountability and justice in her country.
Since Otto Pérez Molina assumed the role of President in January 2012, cases of harassment and threats against HRDs have been on the rise. Human rights defenders (HRDs) in Guatemala are subjected to death threats, physical attacks, acts of harassment, surveillance, stigmatisation, judicial harassment, arbitrary detention, forced disappearance and killings. Many of the violations are carried out by clandestine security structures and illegal groups. The exceptionally high level of impunity enjoyed by the perpetrators increases the risk exponentially for HRDs.
