Bipartisan House Members Condemn Maduro Shuttering Human Rights Office, Press for Legislation to Ensure Justice for Suffering Venezuelans

Washington, February 16, 2024
We are deeply concerned by reports that the Maduro regime has ordered the United Nations human rights office to suspend its operations and leave the country, based on spurious accusations that it works on behalf of 'coup plotters and terrorist groups.’ This is simply the latest assault on democracy, after the Maduro regime reinstated its ban on opposition leader María Corina Machado's presidential candidacy and forcefully disappeared several pro-democracy organizers and human rights defenders.

Washington DC – Today, U.S. Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL), co-chair of the Congressional Venezuela Democracy Caucus, was joined by Maria Elvira Salazar (R-FL) and Joaquin Castro (D-TX), Chair and Ranking Member, respectively, of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, as well as Michael Waltz (R-FL), member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, in issuing the following response to news regarding Venezuela’s U.N. Human Rights mission:

"We are deeply concerned by reports that the Maduro regime has ordered the United Nations human rights office to suspend its operations and leave the country, based on spurious accusations that it works on behalf of 'coup plotters and terrorist groups.’

This is simply the latest assault on democracy, after the Maduro regime reinstated its ban on opposition leader María Corina Machado's presidential candidacy and forcefully disappeared several pro-democracy organizers and human rights defenders.

As the lead sponsors of the AFFECT Human Rights in Venezuela Act, we believe strongly that independent experts should be protected as they investigate and promote accountability for Nicolas Maduro's crimes against humanity, which have precipitated the largest peacetime refugee crisis in human history.

The U.N. Fact-Finding Mission has documented abuses of state power at the highest levels, including extrajudicial murder, torture, sexual and gender-based violence, and arbitrary detention.

We condemn the Maduro regime's flagrant disregard for, and systematic violation of, the rights of Venezuelans. We call for the immediate reinstatement of the mission and urge swift passage of the AFFECT Human Rights in Venezuela Act to affirm the United States' support for the Venezuelan people."

The bipartisan, bicameral AFFECT Human Rights in Venezuela Act directs U.S. support for multilateral efforts to hold the Maduro regime accountable for its crimes against humanity and resolve Venezuela’s decade-long political and economic crisis, while providing immediate support to mitigate the suffering of Venezuelans. The legislation can be found here.

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