Argentina and six other countries urge Venezuelan government to end repression before UN Human Rights Council

( Spanish) – Argentina’s representative 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 on Friday.

Ecuador also reported through its Foreign Ministry that it had made, before the Human Rights Council and on behalf of Argentina, Canada, Chile, Guatemala, Paraguay and Uruguay, an “urgent call for the Venezuelan government to stop the intensified repression following the last elections.”

is attempting to contact the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry for comment on these statements.

“Argentina has not been indifferent to this situation and has opened the doors of its official residence in Caracas to six political leaders to whom it has granted political asylum status,” says the statement from the Argentine Foreign Ministry, which details Fodadori’s intervention in a dialogue with the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, an organization that presented a report on cases of persecution in the country and noted that they could constitute crimes against humanity.

The Venezuelan government rejected the report on Friday, calling it “vulgar and pamphleteering” and asserting that the Mission functioned as an instrument of “coercion and blackmail” against people and governments. The Venezuelan Public Prosecutor’s Office also reacted, saying that it is a “report designed and executed to fuel international attacks against Venezuela.”

is seeking the UN Mission’s reaction to these comments.

On Friday, the Secretary-General of the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, spoke by telephone 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 Venezuelan authorities, who in turn issued a statement in which they mention that Maduro spoke about the alleged “destabilization attempts” that occurred after the presidential elections on July 28.

Both opposition leader María Corina Machado and presidential candidate of the Democratic Unity Roundtable, Edmundo González, welcomed the report from the UN Mission on Venezuela.