Thirteen foreign officials of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights have until Sunday to leave Venezuela, following an unprecedented order from the Government, which includes the suspension of the activities of its office in Caracas, shortly after the first of the two years of extension granted to the presence of this team in the country.
Venezuela “requests that the personnel assigned to this office leave the country in the next 72 hours until they publicly rectify before the international community their colonialist, abusive and violating attitude of the United Nations charter,” said the Executive, which will review in 30 days “the terms of cooperation” with this organization. The decision was widely rejected by NGOs, activists and opposition politicians, and supported by the National Assembly (AN, Parliament), controlled by Chavismo.
Foreign Minister Yván Gil explained that the decision responds to the “improper role that this institution has developed”, acting with partiality and as the “private law firm of the coup plotters and terrorist groups that permanently conspire against the country.” This office, based in Geneva (Switzerland) and established in Caracas since September 2019, had expressed on Tuesday in terrorist plan to assassinate President Nicolás Maduro, and called for his “immediate release.”
In the opinion of the Government, the office has maintained, since the signing of the letter of understanding in 2019, a “clearly biased and partial position, constantly seeking impunity for people involved in various assassination attempts, coups d’état, conspiracies and others.” serious attacks against sovereignty and the constitution”. However, he reiterated the “will (of the Executive) to continue cooperating with international mechanisms for the protection of human rights, always on the basis of genuine dialogue.”
The Government made this decision when it is once again the subject of criticism from organizations and members of Venezuelan civil society and several countries due to the case of San Miguel, whose whereabouts, according to defense complaints, were unknown for four days. In his message, the office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights assured that this “could classify his detention as a forced disappearance.”
According to various NGOs, the Government’s order leaves the victims of violations of fundamental guarantees in a state of “total vulnerability and defenselessness.” The director of the organization Access to Justice, Ali Daniels, told EFE that the “situation is worsening in terms of forced disappearance” because “the periods are expanding” from “hours” to even “weeks.”
In this sense, the Vente Venezuela party, led by the candidate of the main opposition coalition to this year’s presidential elections, María Corina Machado, denounced this Thursday that its regional campaign managers Juan Freites, Luis Camacaro and Guillermo López, arrested in January , have been “missing” for more than three weeks.
These arrests, to which two others are added, according to NGOs and anti-Chavista parties, occur after the authorities reported, in January, the dismantling of a plan that sought the assassination of Maduro, another of the more than 20 denounced by the Government in the last decade.
In December, more than 60 NGOs had asked the UN to monitor the situation of democratic freedoms and human rights in the country and “pronounce in a timely manner” on this matter in view of the upcoming presidential elections, for when they foresee an increase in “repression and persecution.” .
The NGO Fundaredes expressed its rejection of the measure of suspension of the office and the expulsion of its foreign members, a fact that – it warned – “increases the risk of closure of civic spaces, persecution and harassment of civil society organizations “. In this sense, Encuentro, Justicia y Perdón (EJP) considers that “the lack of protection of the victims increases”, and the NGO Provea assured that the decision “attempts to prevent the scrutiny of international protection bodies in the face of serious human rights violations.” . that are committed daily in the country”.
In the opinion of the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD), the main opposition political bloc, the decision “ratifies the totalitarian nature of the regime”, which “does not want the active presence of the international community as witnesses to the permanent human rights violations. ” in the country.
On the contrary, the Legislature supported the Government’s decision and congratulated the chancellor “for having expelled the criminals, meddlers” from the UN office, according to the president of the AN, Chavista Jorge Rodríguez, quoted in an official press release. For its part, the UN office regretted its suspension in Caracas and is evaluating the “steps to follow.”
