(CNN Spanish) – The representative of Argentina to the United Nations in Geneva, Carlos Foradori, urged Venezuela at the Human Rights Council to release those who have been arbitrarily detained and to end repression and persecution for political reasons, the Argentine Foreign Ministry reported this Friday.
Ecuador also reported through its Foreign Ministry that it made, before the Human Rights Council and on behalf of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay, an “urgent call for the government of Venezuela to stop the repression intensified after the last elections.”
CNN is trying to contact the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry to obtain its comments on these statements.
“Argentina has not been indifferent to this situation and opened the doors of its official residence in Caracas to six political leaders to whom it granted the status of political asylum,” states the statement from the Argentine Foreign Ministry that details Fodadori’s intervention in a dialogue with the Independent International Mission to Determine the Facts about Venezuela, an organization that presented a report with cases of persecution in the country and pointed out that they could constitute crimes against humanity.
The Venezuelan Government rejected said report this Friday, describing it as “vulgar and pamphleteer” and assured that the Mission functioned as an instrument of “coercion and blackmail” against people and governments. The Public Ministry of Venezuela also reacted and pointed out that it is a “report designed and executed to fuel international attacks against Venezuela.”
CNN is trying to get the UN Mission’s reaction to these comments.
This Friday, the Secretary General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, spoke by phone with the President of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro. “The Secretary-General expressed concern about reports of post-election violence and human rights violations,” the UN said in a statement.
The conversation was confirmed by the Venezuelan authorities who, in turn, released a statement in which they mentioned that Maduro spoke about the alleged “destabilization attempts” that occurred after the presidential elections of July 28.
Both the opposition leader María Corina Machado and the presidential candidate of the Democratic Unity Roundtable, Edmundo González, thanked the report from the UN Mission on Venezuela.
