Gabriel Eduardo Aranguren Lopez
Gabriel Eduardo Aranguren Lopez is a human rights defender from the State of Cojedes, Venezuela. He is currently the Executive Director of the Center for Action and Defense for Human Rights (CADEF). From an early age, Gabriel exercises social leadership to promote causes for the benefit of vulnerable communities, particularly youth groups in northwestern Venezuela.
Gabriel has pursued advocacy efforts to alleviate the impacts of the political conflict in the country. Gabriel has led solidarity chains, such as “Chamo Solidario” to contain the humanitarian emergency aggravated by the Covid-19 pandemic.
HRDs have been working under restrictive policies for many years in Venezuela: 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.
