Venezuela orders UN human rights office to close, accusing it of anti-government activity

Source: Associated Press

Venezuela orders UN human rights office to close, accusing it of anti-government activity

BY REGINA GARCIA CANO
Updated 7:01 PM EST, February 15, 2024

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Venezuela’s government on Thursday ordered the local United Nations office on human rights to suspend operations and gave its staff 72 hours to leave, accusing it of assisting coup plotters and terrorist groups.

Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil announced the decision at a news conference in Caracas, which came amid heightened concerns that the government is repressing real or perceived opponents in an election year. Nearly a week ago, Venezuela detained a prominent human rights attorney and members of her family, setting off a wave of criticism inside and outside the country.

Gil said the local technical advisory office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, authorized in 2019, was supposed “to improve, to optimize,” human rights. Instead, he said, it had become an “international sounding board to maintain a discourse against the Bolivarian government and against the Venezuelan people.”

The office had “become the private law firm of coup plotters and terrorist groups that permanently conspire against the country,” Gil said, though he did not show any evidence or point to a specific example of that alleged activity.

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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/venezuela-un-human-rights-ordered-closed-baea877b4ab2cf2891d8c5743fb2e3ed