What left Michelle Bachelet’s visit to Venezuela?

Listen to this article

 

The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights met with all sectors and left two members of her team overseeing the situation in that country

After the three-day visit to Venezuela of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, in Latin American Post we present the balance of what the presence of the former Chilean president left in that nation, after her meetings with different leaders politicians, including Juan Guaidó and Nicolás Maduro.

Leer en español: ¿Qué dejó la visita de Michelle Bachelet a Venezuela?

Bachelet held on Thursday on his first day of the agenda, meetings at the Venezuelan Foreign Ministry with ministers and representatives of public powers, such as the attorney general, Tarek Saab, and the president of the Supreme Court, Maikel Moreno, Infobae reported.

Subsequently, on Friday, Chilean politics started its agenda with a private meeting with Juan Guaidó and, who was in favor of the release of the 700 political prisoners in the country according to the non-governmental organization Foro Penal. "He told us he is insisting on the release of political prisoners," the leader of the Legislative told reporters after explaining that the meeting focused on "bringing solutions to the humanitarian catastrophe."

Finally, after her meeting with Maduro, the president of this country said: "There are going to be different criteria, there are always different countries, but I have told you that you can count on me, as president, to take all the seriousness of your suggestions, their recommendations, and their proposals ", after dismissing Bachelet in Miraflores.

According to Infobae, the government leader added "the purpose is for institutions to be protected and also to bring to justice anyone who violates human rights in any instance whatsoever. I have given him all my guarantees."

Read also: Nicolás Maduro: lonelier than ever

The words of Bachelet

The first thing that Bachelet said publicly in a press conference, after her meetings in private, was that two people from her team will stay in the country following the Venezuelan situation.

She also confirmed, according to CNN in Spanish, that she will work to establish a permanent office whose management will be based on the recommendations of the report she will present on July 5 before the UN Commission on Human Rights.

In the same way, it committed the Maduro government with the offer of information to monitor, together with the detention centers, situations related to Human Rights. "The situation in Venezuela hurts me," the high commissioner of Human Rights acknowledged, who also described as "painful" hearing the testimonies of torture and rape of many people, both opponents and government affections, CNN said in Spanish.

Real cases

According to El Espectador de Colombia, a few meters from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where Bachelet met behind closed doors, a group of oil workers demanded the payment of a labor debt to claim 587 employees of Petróleos de Venezuela (PDVSA) since a year and a half.

Simultaneously, at UNDP headquarters, civil and human rights organizations requested the release of political prisoners and attention to the humanitarian crisis. The director of the NGO Penal Forum, the lawyer Alfredo Romero, admitted that it is "pending matter". As if that were not enough, workers in the health sector protested in front of the Maternidad de Caracas and the Pediatric JM Los Ríos demanding that the international commissioner visit the public medical centers and verify the severe crisis they are experiencing.

The Chilean president, continues El Espectador, did not visit the welfare centers but did hold a meeting with victims of human rights violations at the Metropolitan University. An example of this was Rosa Orozco, mother of Geraldine Moreno, a young woman who died in 2014 amid the protests, and who asked Bachelet "to hear Venezuelan mothers, as there are 306 people killed by the protests", of which 275 were men and 31 women, also regretting that the country has "99% impunity".

Conclusions

The digital media Caraota Libre briefly highlighted the aspects that are expected to be positive from Bachelet's visit to the beaten South American country.

The first one of having left two members in charge of a permanent human rights office of the UN in Venezuela. In that sense, the leader said: "The officers are mandated to offer assistance and technical advice, and continue to monitor the situation in Venezuela."

The second is that the UN will have access to detention centers, something in which, moreover, Maduro committed himself. The other important thing is that Bachelet was broad and therefore met with the different sectors involved, government, opposition, ministerial train and citizens to have a better view of the case.

The strong support for Norwegian mediation was another point to take into account, and there he requested "to desist from short-term positions" to achieve a "political solution" to the Venezuelan conflict. Affirm that the humanitarian crisis (health, electrical and medical) is the responsibility of the regime beyond a supposed investment of 75% of the budget in the social area, was a point of relief for the opposition.

The leader said that she will keep her focus in Venezuela with the following phrase: "Everyone during this visit told me 'do not forget us' and I will not forget about Venezuela." Although he acknowledged that he lacked many people to talk to, he assured that what he saw during his visit allowed him to reinforce the written report that his office will present on July 5, which is seen by many as a final report, ended Caraota Libre.

LatinAmerican Post | Onofre Zambrano

Translated from "¿Qué dejó la visita de Michelle Bachelet a Venezuela?"