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 a “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 judgment 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 primary function is to facilitate the implementation of recommendations included in reports presented to the Human Rights Council by the high commissioner, Volker Turk.
There have been six similar reports from Venezuela.
Retaliatory strikes
The weapon seizures come on top of a round of US strikes on Huthi-held areas of Yemen, which are designed to prevent future ship attacks.
On Thursday, the US military announced that it had destroyed more drones and missiles in Huthi-controlled areas of Yemen that were ready to be launched against ships in the Red Sea.
The raids took place on Wednesday, between 1:00 and 7:30 p.m. (1000-1630 GMT), according to CENTCOM.
U.S. “forces successfully conducted four self-defence strikes against seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles, three mobile unmanned aerial vehicles, and one explosive unmanned surface vessel,” according to the report.
The Huthi-run Saba news agency reported several strikes in Hodeida province.
In an earlier statement on Wednesday, CENTCOM reported an anti-ship ballistic missile was launched from Huthi-controlled territories into the Gulf of Aden, but there were no reports of deaths or damage to ships in the region.
The Huthi raids have caused some shipping companies to detour across southern Africa to avoid the Red Sea, which ordinarily transports approximately 12% of global marine trade.
The UN Conference on Trade and Development warned late last month that the volume of commercial traffic traveling through the Suez Canal had plummeted by more than 40% in the previous two months.