We were born as an act of stubbornness, of resistance to not migrating from our natural space, from which the government was pushing us to leave, and continues to do so.
Rigoberto Lobo is an activist and human rights defender whose career began in the 2014 protests in Venezuela when he began to assist people injured by government repression. His work has focused on providing accompaniment and protection to victims, as well as carrying out academic work linked to the defense of human rights. In 2016 he founded the organization PROMEDEHUM whose focus is the defense of freedom of peaceful association, support to other activists, groups, collectives and organizations.
Due to his trajectory Rigoberto Lobo Puentes has been subject to police harassment, intimidation and anonymous threats against him and members of his family, illegal detentions by the military and digital attacks due to his work as a human rights defender.
In September 2021, while coordinating humanitarian support in the municipality of Zea, Merida state, he was arbitrarily detained by the Bolivarian National Guard of Venezuela (GNB) along with members of the organization Promedehum, doctors and logistics personnel.
In October 2021, he was alerted by people linked to Venezuelan State institutions that he was at risk of arbitrary detention due to his work as a human rights defender. This situation continued in 2022 when he again received information about an investigation against him.
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.
