Martin Sheen with Pedro Maldonado Flores (right) and Yuri Melini (centre) winner of the 2009 Front Line Award for HRDs at Risk

Human rights defenders Dr Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero and Mr Pedro Rafael Maldonado Flores received threats on 29 August 2011. Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero is the director of the Centro de Acción Legal, Ambiental y Social de Guatemala – CALAS (Legal, Environmental and Social Action Centre of Guatemala) and Pedro Rafael Maldonado Flores is a legal-political environmental coordinator with the same organisation.

Further Information

CALAS works to promote environmental issues, community participation and respect for the collective rights of indigenous communities in relation to environmental concerns. Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero received the 2009 Front Line Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk. Front Line previously issued an appeal in relation to an assassination attempt against Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero on 4 September 2008, and death threats in April 2010.

On 29 August 2011, at approximately 09:30 am, Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero and Pedro Rafael Maldonado Flores each received a letter in a manila envelope which had been sent by registered post. The name registered as the sender of both letters was José Humberto Franco (20 calle 7-22, zona 1), with a registered sending date of 25 August.

Each envelope contained:

A threatening note which made mention of the recent dismissal of Federico Guillermo Alvarez Mancilla from the role of Executive Secretary of the Consejo Nacional de Áreas protegidas – CONAP (National Council of Protected Areas) on 23 August 2011 as a result of pressure from environmental organisations, including CALAS.

Within the threatening note are the lines “RAFAEL MALDONADO SIENTETE TRIUNFADOR” (Rafael Maldonado feel like a winner) and “YURI YURI, YURI YURI NO APRENDES QUE LA VIDA HAY QUE LLEVARLA EN PAZ. ESTO QUE LES MANDAMMOS ES PARA Que VERIFIQUEN QUE TODO VA EN SERIE Y EN SERIO MUY EN SERIO. USTEDES SERAN PARTE DE LA ECOCADENA. ANONIMUS O COMO QUIERAN” (Yuri, Yuri, Yuri, do you never learn that life should be lived in peace. This that we send you is to verify that everything happens in sequence, and is serious, very serious. You will both be part of the ecochain. Anonymous or as you like).

A memorandum from the Controller General of Accounts which had been sent to former officials of the Ministry of the Interior under the Presidency of Óscar Berger which referred to several objections relating to purchases and business negotiations with a reference number: DCGC-MG-OF-160-2008 Ref Core activities. The memorandum is dated 18 April 2008 and stamped by Erwin Johann Sperinsen Vernon.

A series of photographs, and in some cases sketches of their home locations, of 18 suspected criminals.

On 25 August 2011, Federico Guillermo Alvarez Mancilla gave an interview on President Colom's radio programme in which he referred to Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero as an “ecohistérico” (eco-hysteric). This statement was picked up by a number of media outlets who used the same term to describe other environmentalists, and alluding to the fact that it was this hysteria which led to the dismissal of the former Executive Secretary of CONAP.

On 4 September 2008, Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero was shot 7 times outside the home of a family member. Over the previous two years he had documented 128 attacks on environmental activists and led the campaign to bring the assassins of environmental campaigners lawyers Erwin Ochoa López and Julio Armando Vásquez (CONAP workers) to justice. They were murdered because of the work they were carrying out in relation to the legal defence of protected areas on Guatemala's Atlantic Coast. As a result of this attack, Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero and CALAS have been granted protection measures from the State since September 2008.

Front Line believes that these threats against Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero and Pedro Rafael Maldonado Flores are directly related to their legitimate activities in defence of human rights, in particular the right to a safe and clean environment. Front Line fears for the physical and psychological integrity of Yuri Giovanni Melini Salguero, Pedro Rafael Maldonado Flores and all the other members of CALAS.

You Can watch Dr Melini's powerful testimony to the 5th Dublin Platform for Human Rights Defenders