Two days after the UN agency expressed “deep concern” over the arrest and detention of Rocio San Miguel and called for her immediate release, Venezuela suspended the local UN office and gave all staff 72 hours to leave. Foreign Affairs Minister Yvan Gil claimed that the UN office had taken on an “inappropriate role” and had become “the private law firm of the coup plotters and terrorists who permanently conspire against the country”.

Rocío San Miguel, 57-year-old lawyer and military expert, was arrested on February 9^th at an airport outside Caracas as she was about to take holiday with her daughter to Miami. For four days, no information about her arrest or location was revealed, aside from Venezuela’s top prosecutor claiming on social media she was involved in a plot to assassinate the president, Nicolás Maduro. On February 13^th, her lawyers found her location, an infamously brutal detention center, and it was revealed her family was in state custody as well. This tactic of detaining the entire family, and preventing them from communication for days is known as “forced disappearance” under international law. San Miguel has been detained since the 9^th.

San Miguel is president of NGO Control Ciudadano, a civil association that monitors the nation’s armed forces and national security. San Miguel’s arrest takes place in the wake of attempts by the President’s party to regulate non-profit organizations like San Miguel’s, claiming to want to prohibit them from participating in activities that “threaten national security.” These attempts have led to concerns that NGO’s will be criminalized all together.

Nicolás Maduro has been president of Venezuela since 2013. He has been accused of authoritarian leadership since he has taken office. The practice of jailing opposition by claiming they are linked to assassination conspiracies is not a foreign practice to Maduro. According to Foro Penal, a watchdog group, there are 263 political prisoners in Venezuela. In the extreme case of Emirlendris Benítez, a woman was tortured and given a 30-year sentence for simply sharing a taxi with someone accused of plotting against the government.

Venezuela is not only silencing critics, but government opposition altogether. María Corina Machado, the country’s leading opposition candidate, was disqualified from participating in the upcoming 2024 election. This prompted the U.S. to threaten to reimpose recently eased oil sanctions.

The expelling of the UN agency in Venezuela displays the country’s further descent into authoritarian rule. Since the economic collapse in 2014, the Venezuelan government has increasingly used state institutions to silence critics. We can see this trend accelerating in anticipation of the upcoming election.