Venezuela Expels Office of UN High Commissioner for Human Rights

Clouds are gathering over UN agencies dealing with refugees, humanitarian and human rights issues. Following Israel’s harsh criticism of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine (UNRWA), whose employees were allegedly involved in the deadly Hamas attack on the Jewish state on October 7, 2023, Venezuela has also raised its voice. It ordered the staff of the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to “leave the Latin American country within three days.”

Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil announced this decision by President Nicolas Maduro. He also noted that “in the next 30 days, the country will conduct a comprehensive review of the terms of cooperation with the UN.”

The scandal erupted after a visit to Venezuela in early February by Michael Fakhri, an OHCHR food officer. After the trip, Fakhri made highly critical statements about the Maduro government’s food policies. He said it was “insufficient to address the real causes of hunger in the country.” The UN representative’s statements were called “false and biased” by Venezuelan state media.

But what led to the divergence between Venezuela and the UN was the “deep concern” of the UN, Amnesty International, and some other international organizations about human rights after the arrest of Rocío San Miguel. This Venezuelan activist is highly critical of Maduro. San Miguel was arrested on February 9, 2024, on charges of “participating in a terrorist plot to organize an attack against President Maduro.” According to OHCHR, there was no word from her for several days, and San Miguel’s lawyers said the activist “is being held in a prison known to be particularly harsh.”

Caracas’s decision seems to have taken the UN agency by surprise: an OHCHR spokesperson said only that the agency was “assessing next steps.”