Cuba
Yoani Sánchez: Born in Havana in 1975, Sánchez is best known for Generación Y, a blog she writes about daily life under the political oppression of the Cuban government. She evades the censorship of Raúl Castro's government by emailing her entries to friends and associates outside the country, who then post them online. Although Sánchez has suffered harassment and intimidation by the Cuban government -- she described a 2009 episode in which she claims to have been abducted and beaten by government thugs -- she nevertheless continues to write, drawing attention to the political plight of Cubans living under the Castro regime.
Peru
Francisco Soberón: Soberón is most famous in Peru for his 1985 founding of the Asociación Pro Derechos Humanos, a human rights NGO headquartered in Lima. The organization's initial purpose was to curb abuses by the Peruvian military and various insurgent groups during the country's civil war. Today, it has embraced the broader agenda of improving Peru's judicial system and improving the poor's knowledge of their rights. In 2008, Soberón accused President Alan García's government of manipulating public opinion by denouncing organizations as diverse as labor unions and environmental NGOs as terrorist groups in an effort to stigmatize them and muffle dissent. García hasn't taken such accusations lightly, calling Soberón a traitor, according to Reuters.
Guatemala
Frank La Rue: The founder of one of Guatemala's first human rights NGOs, the Center for Legal Action on Human Rights (CALDH), La Rue is among Guatemala's most impassioned human rights activists. La Rue and CALDH provide technical legal advice to the many Guatemalan communities that brought cases in 2001 against former presidents Gen. Romeo Lucas García and Gen. Efraín Ríos Montt, both of whom were implicitly found guilty of committing genocide by Guatemala's Historical Clarification Commission.
ADALBERTO ROQUE/AFP/Getty Images


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