Venezuela’s foreign minister announced Thursday that he had chosen to “suspend the activities” of the UN rights office in the country and ordered its workers to depart within 72 hours.
The move comes two days after the United Nations agency expressed “deep concern” about the incarceration of noted rights activist Rocio San Miguel and urged her “immediate release.”
Foreign Minister Yvan Gil stated that the office had assumed an “inappropriate role” and had become “the private law firm of the coup plotters and terrorists who permanently conspire against the country.”
He stated that the judgement will be in effect until the agency “publicly rectify, before the international community, their colonialist, abusive, and violating attitude of the United Nations Charter.”
The United Nations Human Rights Office has been present in Venezuela since 2019.
Its main role is to support the implementation of recommendations made in reports which the high commissioner, Volker Turk, presents to the Human Rights Council.
There have been six such reports issued from Venezuela.