Henderson Maldonado
Henderson Maldonado is a lawyer and human rights defender from Venezuela. He is an active member of the Movimiento Vino Tinto, the Red de derechos humanos del estado Lara, Civilis Derechos Humanos and the Programa Venezolano de Educación Acción en Derechos Humanos. He is well known for his work on the defence of the human rights of more than 200 persons subjected to state repression in the context of public protests, including professors, trade unionists, artists and the families of those killed as a consequence of police violence.
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.
