Venezuela’s socialist regime expelled the staff of the United Nations human rights office stationed in Caracas on Thursday, ordering the office to shut down its operations and giving its personnel 72 hours to leave the country.
The announcement followed a statement in which the U.N. Human Rights Office publicly expressed concerns over the arrest and disappearance of Venezuelan activist and lawyer Rocío San Miguel this week, whom the socialist regime accused of being involved in a dubious assassination plot against dictator Nicolás Maduro.
San Miguel’s whereabouts remain unknown at press time. The U.N. human rights officials described her detention as a potential “enforced disappearance,” which drew the ire of the socialist regime.
Venezuelan activist Rocio San Miguel, who leads a private organization focused on national security and defense issues, talks during a conference in Caracas, Venezuela, on Sept. 14, 2011. The administration of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro has arrested San Miguel, the government confirmed Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. (Fernando Llano, File/AP)
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil made the official announcement on Thursday afternoon. Maduro ordered the 13 U.N. staff members to leave the country by Sunday. They will not be allowed back “until such time as they publicly rectify before the international community their colonialist and abusive attitude, in violation of the Charter of the United Nations.”
Gil asserted that Maduro had agreed to the office’s opening in September 2019 to “show the world the advances in human rights in Venezuela.”
“This decision is taken due to the improper role that this institution has developed, which far from showing it as an impartial entity, has led it to become the private office of the coup and terrorist groups that permanently conspire against the country,” the official statement reads.
A U.N. and Venezuelan flag hang outside the building that houses the Technical Advisory Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Caracas, Venezuela, Thursday, Feb. 15, 2024. Venezuela’s government on Thursday ordered this local U.N. office on human rights to suspend operations and gave its staff 72 hours to leave, accusing the office of promoting opposition to the South American country. (Matias Delacroix/AP)
In the statement, the socialist regime accused the U.N.’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights of maintaining a “clearly biased and partial position” against the regime and of “constantly seeking to generate impunity for persons involved in various assassination attempts, coups d’état, conspiracies and other serious attacks” against Venezuela.
The statement continued:
However, the Office of the High Commissioner has exacerbated its attacks against Venezuela, just at a time when the world is witnessing the genocidal barbarity committed against the Palestinian people, in a context of total impunity favored by the inaction of this international bureaucracy, which, without condemning these acts or requesting an immediate ceasefire, remains pallid and inert in the face of the murder of more than 10,000 Palestinian children.
The Maduro regime did not provide any evidence to substantiate its claims against the U.N. human rights office, nor did it explain the relation between the alleged 10,000 dead Palestinian children and the office’s concerns over the arrest of San Miguel.
San Miguel, a Venezuelan activist, was arrested in Maiquetia last week as she attempted to board a plane to Miami.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab publicly accused San Miguel of being involved in a plot known as “White Bracelet.” The plan, Saab claimed, sought to assassinate Maduro and other members of this regime, as well as attack several military units across the country.
Saab claimed this week that San Miguel was sent to the Helicoide (“the Helix”), an unfinished drive-thru mall from the 1950s that serves as one of the regime’s most infamous torture centers.
The socialist regime also arrested several members of her family, who were released shortly afterward.
The Maduro regime, after receiving a generous oil and gas sanctions relief package from the Biden Administration, launched a new wave of repression against dissidents last month known as “Bolivarian Fury.” Maduro claimed that the “Bolivarian Fury” crackdown was enacted in response to plans to murder him. The White House has expressed “deep concern” over San Miguel’s arrest.
In 2022, a United Nations independent fact-finding mission confirmed that the Maduro regime uses its intelligence and military apparatus to commit acts of torture, sexual violence, and other inhumane, degrading acts against dissidents. The Maduro regime denied the accusations, claiming that the mission’s report had “obscure interests” against Venezuela.
Venezuela was a member of the United Nations Human Rights Council until October 2022, when it failed to obtain the required votes for a new three-year term.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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