Other · Non-profit · cofavic.org
On March 20, 2017, the website of the Venezuelan human rights organization COFAVIC (Committee of Relatives of Victims of the Events of February–March 1989) was compromised, preventing its staff from accessing and managing the platform for approximately four hours, until access was restored with the help of cybersecurity experts. The attack coincided with COFAVIC’s participation in the 161st session of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and was part of a wave of attacks against Venezuelan NGO and media websites between March 7 and 20, 2017. A similar incident had previously affected COFAVIC’s website on December 20, 2016, allegedly in retaliation for a December 9 report on murders in the states of Sucre and Miranda. Front Line Defenders and PROVEA linked the attacks to the organization’s human rights advocacy work. The perpetrator was not publicly identified.
