In Venezuela, the government of President Nicolás Maduro has ordered staff from the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to leave the country within the next three days. Announcing the decision, Foreign Minister Yvan Gil said the country would conduct a “holistic review” of the terms of cooperation with the United Nations over the next 30 days. An OHCHR spokeswoman said the agency was “considering next steps.”
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#Communicado Venezuela announces its decision to suspend the activities of the Technical Advisory Agency of the High National Committee for Human Rights in Venezuela and to conduct a comprehensive review of the terms of technical cooperation described in the Charter of… pic.twitter.com/6OUb85cCIf
— Yvan Gil (@yvangil) February 15, 2024
In recent days, Michael Fakhri, an OHCHR official who works on food issues, visited Venezuela and subsequently made rather critical comments about the Maduro government's food policy, claiming that it is not enough to address the real causes of hunger in the country remove. Fakhri's statements were heavily criticized by Venezuelan state media.
Also this week, the United Nations and other international organizations expressed concern over the arrest of Rocío San Miguel, a Venezuelan activist who has been highly critical of Maduro. San Miguel was arrested last Friday on charges of involvement in an assassination attempt on the president: there was no news of her for days, and on Tuesday her lawyers said she was being held in a prison known for being particularly harsh.
OHCHR has been operating in Venezuela since 2019.
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