Venezuela charges UN human rights office with conspiring with coup plotters

The Venezuelan government has ordered the local UN human rights office to “suspend its activities” and vacate its staff within 72 hours, accusing the body of conspiring against the country.

Venezuela’s Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil on Thursday announced the decision at a news conference in the capital Caracas. Gil said the office has been used by the community "to maintain a discourse" against the South American country.

Gil added that the office had taken on an "inappropriate role" and become "the private law firm of the coup plotters and terrorists who permanently conspire against the country."

He announced that the decision would remain in place until the agency "publicly rectify, before the international community, their colonialist, abusive and violating attitude of the United Nations Charter.”

The move comes two days after the United Nations agency expressed "deep concern" over the detention of military expert Rocio San Miguel and called for her "immediate release."

Miguel was detained on Friday at the Maiquetía airport in Caracas when “she was preparing to leave the country.”

The Public Ministry of Venezuela confirmed on Sunday the arrest of Miguel, for being involved in an assassination plan against Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and other high-ranking government officials.

Maduro charged the US-backed opposition and the CIA with planning “terrorist attacks” to destabilize the country ahead of the presidential election this year.

"Venezuela is entering a period of presidential elections, but the mercenary extreme right and the parasitic opposition will not brook the election process. They will trigger a war to harm the people; they will wage a war and terrorist attacks. They are getting ready," Maduro said last month.

"The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the United States, as well as the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), from its headquarters in Colombia, are preparing violent, coup-like and anti-constitutional actions against Venezuela," he added.

The Venezuelan government was reported to have neutralized five assassination attempts against Maduro and other Venezuelan authorities in 2023.

SS