The placard for Venezuela is pictured at the 36th session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva Sept. 11, 2017. Photo: CNS photo/Denis Balibouse, Reuters Tobias Käufer (KNA)
The socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela has called on the staff of the United Nations Human Rights Office to leave the South American country within 72 hours. This emerged from a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry in Caracas on Thursday. At a press conference, Foreign Minister Yvan Gil accused the UN of instrumentalising the office against the government at international level. Government circles called the UN representatives “busybodies” who had prepared a “buffet for putschists and terrorists”.
The UN office had previously sharply criticised the arrest of human rights lawyer Rocio San Miguel, who was arrested a few days ago. She had reported on human rights violations by the Venezuelan security forces. The EU called for the activist’s immediate release.
In an initial reaction, the governments of Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay and Costa Rica also condemned Venezuela’s actions. In a joint statement, they expressed their “deep concern about the arbitrary detention of human rights activist Rocio San Miguel” and called for her immediate release.
Brazil, an influential country that has recently acted cautiously towards Venezuela, also criticised the lawyer’s arrest. Celso Amorim, foreign policy advisor to President Lula da Silva, told the newspaper “O Globo”: “Any arrest of a political nature is worrying.”
The Venezuelan human rights organisation Provea declared that the arrest was a renewed attempt to eliminate the rule of law. And Venezuela’s Cardinal Baltazar Porras, Archbishop of Caracas, said in an interview on the radio station “Circuito Exitos”: “A society continues to develop when there is a right to criticise, to dissent.”
The ban on the leading conservative presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado in the polls also disturbs the churchman. “Those who are on my side can do whatever they want, but those who are not on my side are completely excluded, even if they say the slightest thing. That creates a climate of mistrust,” said Porras.
Venezuela has been suffering from a severe supply and economic crisis for years. The UN Human Rights Commission has reported serious human rights violations by the Maduro government, such as extrajudicial executions, torture and repression of the opposition. The International Criminal Court in The Hague has reopened investigations into crimes against humanity. The government rejects this as a political campaign. Over the past ten years, a quarter of the population has left the country and Venezuela has lost around eight million people as a result.