The United Nations\u2019 top human rights official met separately Friday in Caracas with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro, who are locked in a prolonged struggle over control of the crisis-wracked country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Emerging from their meeting, Guaido said he spoke with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet about the need to expel Maduro from power and end Venezuela\u2019s \u201csuffering.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMay this visit serve to bring solutions to the catastrophe that this country is experiencing,\u201d Guaido said on the steps of the opposition-controlled National Assembly. \u201cThis visit should serve to reinvigorate the fight in Venezuela.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maduro, for his part, hailed Bachelet\u2019s visit as a \u201cfirst step\u201d in fostering stronger relations between Venezuela and U.N. human rights monitoring agency and he promised to earnestly consider her input.\u201cShe can count on me to take her suggestions, recommendations and proposals with absolute seriousness,\u201d he said after their evening meeting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bachelet\u2019s first trip to the South American country as chief of the U.N. watchdog comes amid heightened international pressure on Maduro for allegedly silencing opponents with jail, torture and excessive violence. A once-wealthy oil nation, Venezuela is now experiencing a severe political and economic crisis that has driven a staggering 4 million people to flee. The socialist government struggles daily to keep the lights on and provide reliable drinking water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Describing his closed-door conversation with Bachelet, Guaido said he emphasized that Maduro\u2019s government is still holding two opposition lawmakers in jail in addition to nearly 700 activists considered to be political prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Guaido said the high commissioner also appeared deeply concerned about human rights abuses, noting that she spent several hours on her visit this week with victims of violations and their relatives. She proposed opening a temporary office in the country to monitor human rights issues and allow her representatives to visit other regions, Guaido added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Earlier this year, Bachelet issued a tough statement criticizing Maduro\u2019s government for harsh crackdowns on dissenters and reports of extrajudicial killings of poor, unarmed residents at the hands of security forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am also deeply concerned about the shrinking of the democratic space, especially the continued criminalization of peaceful protest and dissent,\u201d she said in the March statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bachelet had already met with socialist party boss Diosdado Cabello, the Supreme Court head and attorney general, and completed her three-day visit by speaking with Maduro. The embattled president revealed few details about their meeting in a brief statement afterwards broadcast on state television.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some have feared Bachelet will get a highly curated, unrealistic view of a crisis, while others have seen the trip as something of a minor triumph for rights activists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her predecessor, Zeid Ra\u2019ad al-Hussein, was repeatedly denied access to the country for criticizing what he said was the government\u2019s refusal to recognize a humanitarian crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the eve of her arrival, the government freed 28 opposition activists considered political prisoners, including a substitute lawmaker and 18 people detained during recent anti-government protests. Previously, Maduro began allowing the Red Cross to deliver humanitarian aid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe greatly anticipate her visit,\u201d Maduro said. \u201cIt will be good for Venezuela\u2019s system of human rights.\u201dGuaido has failed to seize power five months after launching a campaign to oust Maduro. But he has managed to win the recognition of more than 50 nations and galvanize international opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Maduro maintains that his rival\u2019s efforts have been part of a U.S.-backed coup intended to remove him from office and exploit the nation\u2019s vast oil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In recent weeks, Norway has hosted two rounds of talks between representatives of Maduro and Guaido, although the mediation effort has stalled over the opposition leader\u2019s insistence that the government agree to early presidential elections.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The United Nations\u2019 top human rights official met separately Friday in Caracas with Venezuelan opposition leader Juan Guaido and President Nicolas Maduro, who are locked in a prolonged struggle over control of the crisis-wracked country. Emerging from their meeting, Guaido said he spoke with U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet about the need […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64225,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64224","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64224","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64224"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64224\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":64226,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64224\/revisions\/64226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64225"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64224"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64224"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64224"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}