LatinNews Daily - 26 February 2024

Venezuela: On 16 February the US embassy in Venezuela responded to the “retaliatory decision” by Venezuela’s government led by President Nicolás Maduro the previous day to temporarily suspend the operations of the local branch of the United Nations (UN) Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and expel its staff. According to the US embassy, this decision was made in response to an OHCHR report expressing “profound concern” over the detention of human rights activist Rocío San Miguel, president of the Venezuelan human rights NGO Control Ciudadano, who was charged with crimes including terrorism on 12 February. Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Yván Gil released a statement on 15 February asking OHCHR staff “to leave the country within the next 72 hours, until they rectify in front of the international community their colonialist and abusive attitude which violates the UN Charter”. Michèle Taylor, US Permanent Representative to the UN Human Rights Council responded on social media that the US was “alarmed” by the “retaliatory decision” to suspend operations of the OHCHR and expel its staff. US Assistant Secretary for Western Hemisphere Affairs Brian Nichols also reacted on social media, writing that: “The expulsion of UN Human Rights staff from Venezuela is alarming. Escalating intimidation of dissenting voices exacerbates Venezuela’s humanitarian, political, and economic crises.” US-based NGO Human Rights Watch has also condemned the decision, issuing a statement on 16 February calling on “States, the UN Human Rights Council, and the broader international community to insist on the reestablishment of an effective OHCHR presence in [Venezuela] and the release of all those arbitrarily detained for political reasons”. 

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