Domingo Baltazar
On 24 March 2015, environmental rights defenders and indigenous leaders Rigoberto Juárez and Domingo Baltazar, from Santa Eulalia, were taken into custody as they completed a lobbying mission to the Human Rights Council of the Public Ministry in Guatemala City. The arrest was based onfalse accusations that stated the defenders were responsible forleading a group of people to destroy equipment belonging to a hydroelectric project in San Luis, jurisdiction of Santa Eulalia, in December 2014. Although they were ordered to be placed under house arrest for these accusations, they were re-arrested on the same day under different accusations, for allegedly organising roadblocks to demand the release of other detainees from Barillas, Huehuetenango.The two human rights defenders remained a total of 486 days in prison before a decision of the High Risk Tribunal A on 22 July 2016 ordered their immediate release.
Depuis qu'Otto Pérez Molina a été élu président en janvier 2012, les cas de harcèlement et les menaces contre des DDH ont augmenté. Au Guatemala, les défenseur-ses des droits humains (DDH) sont l’objet de menaces de mort, d’agressions physiques, d’actes de harcèlement, de surveillance, de stigmatisation, de harcèlement judiciaire, de détentions arbitraires, de disparitions forcées et d’assassinats. La plupart de ces violations sont l’œuvre de structures sécuritaires clandestines et de groupes illégaux. Le niveau d'impunité exceptionnellement élevé dont bénéficient les coupables accentue exponentiellement le risque pour les DDH.
