Víctor Vásquez
Víctor Vásquez is a member of the Consejo Indígena de Simpinula (Indigenous Council of Simpinula) in Santa María, La Paz. He is also the local leader of the Movimiento Indígena Independiente Lenca de La Paz (Lenca Indigenous Movement of La Paz, Honduras – MILPAH), which advocates for the rights of Lenca indigenous peoples to self-determination and to their ancestral lands. The human rights defender has been repeatedly threatened for supporting local small farmers' groups in La Paz in activities to recover land they consider has been illegally privatised by local authorities.
Human rights defenders suffer extrajudicial executions, enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment as well as judicial harassment, threats and stigmatisation. Journalists, lawyers, prosecutors, those defending the rights of women, children, the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) community, indigenous and Afro-Honduran communities, and those working on environmental and land rights issues are particularly at risk.
