In a speech at the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Venezuela, Yván Gil, defended this Tuesday (27) in Geneva Caracas' decision to close a United Nations office in the country the week before last. .
On the 15th, the Venezuelan dictatorship ordered the suspension of the activities of the local technical advisory office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which had been investigating violations in this area since 2019, and the departure of its employees from the country.
Nicolás Maduro's regime claimed that they “interfered in internal matters”, after questioning the disappearance for a few days and the arrest of lawyer and activist Rocío San Miguel, later presented in court.
In his speech this Tuesday, Gil said that Venezuela “remains interested in maintaining high-level technical cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights”, but said that this can only happen “without interference or political participation”. .
“The office in Venezuela strayed from its mandate of impartiality, carrying out inappropriate actions by establishing itself as a kind of private law firm for coup plotters and terrorist groups,” said Gil, according to information from the EFE agency.
“This forced us to suspend its activities in Venezuela until the relevant corrective measures are taken,” stated the Venezuelan Foreign Minister.
Gil further alleged that the office was not “able to comment even once on the national government's sustained allegations of attempted coup d'état and assassination” against Maduro and that instead it “echoed the campaign of radical sectors that continue to attack Venezuela’s institutions and government.”
At the opening of the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council, on Monday (26), the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, criticized Caracas in his speech.
“The UN has become a lightning rod for manipulative propaganda and a scapegoat for political failures [de governos pelo mundo]”, he joked.
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