Fundación Mavid
Fundación Manos Amigas por la Vida - Fundación Mavid (Mavid Foundation) is a non-profit organization founded in 2003 in Carabobo state, dedicated to defending the rights of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA). Composed mostly by PLWHA, family members and health personnel, they aim to contributing to the orientation of PLWHA, through workshops and self-support groups, to prevention and other activities – including distribution of medicines.
HRDs have been working under restrictive policies for many years: the Maduro administration has continued the work begun by Chávez in restricting civil space and delegitimising HRDs, repeatedly accusing them of undermining the Venezuelan democracy with the alleged collaboration of the United States. HRDs are discredited and criminalised by state-controlled media (television, radio, print media) on a weekly basis.
The authorities have systematically undermined freedom of expression, which has not only affected HRDs and other critical voices, but has also created a more restrictive media environment. Indeed, HRDs who publicly speak out about human rights violations, including at the Inter-American Court for Human Rights, have also been subjected to restrictions in the private sphere, with surveillance of their email and communication being commonplace.
