Venezuela has freed an opposition legislator who spent almost two months behind bars, parliament announced, ahead of a visit by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
Gilber Caro, 45, had been in custody since his arrest by intelligence agents on April 26 for unclear reasons. “The deputy Gilber Caro never should have been imprisoned. He is now out from behind bars but like all Venezuelans still has no freedom,” the National Assembly said on Twitter.
Venezuela is caught in an economic crisis and a political standoff between President Nicolas Maduro’s government and National Assembly leader Juan Guaido.
The opposition leader, Guaido, declared himself interim president earlier this year, and has been recognised by the US and more than 50 other countries.
Guaido’s opposition-controlled assembly has effectively been sidelined by a separate body, the pro-Maduro Constituent Assembly.
Bachelet’s office said she will meet both Maduro and Guaido during her trip beginning today.
She will also hold talks with civil society leaders and “victims of human rights violations and abuses,” the UN rights office said.
Bachelet, a former president of Chile, has been critical of Maduro’s crackdown on opponents, particularly of the excessive force used by the security services in response to legitimate protests.
She has also criticised US sanctions against Maduro’s government, cautioning that they were exacerbating the crisis and possibly hurting “people’s basic rights and well-being.”
The oil-rich country is suffering from hyperinflation and shortages of basic goods from food to medicine, a crisis that has forced millions to flee.
Caro was arrested just before a failed April 30 uprising when Guaido appeared surrounded by about 30 military personnel.
Clashes between protesters and security forces left several people dead and the Supreme Court has charged at least 14 National Assembly deputies with involvement and branded them as traitors.
One of them is Guaido’s deputy Edgar Zambrano, who is in custody.
Caro was previously arrested in January 2017 on accusations of plotting an armed revolt against Maduro but was freed 17 months later without being convicted.
Meanwhile, Venezuela on Monday received a second shipment of Red Cross humanitarian aid, including 24 tonnes of medical supplies and generators provided by Panama, intended for hospitals to help address the country’s acute health crisis.
In a statement, the Venezuelan Red Cross said it had received “medicines, medical supplies and power generators” that will be distributed in hospitals across the country, which is experiencing the worst crisis in its recent history.
Six trucks moved the supplies to a Red Cross warehouse in Caracas.
The shipment seeks to mitigate a severe shortage of drugs and hospital supplies in Venezuela, which has suffered more than four years of recession and hyper-inflation marked by shortages of basic necessities such as food and medicine.
The United Nations says a quarter of its 30mn population is in urgent need of aid.
Maduro authorised entry of the first Red Cross shipment in April after signing an agreement with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), in the middle of a power struggle with Guaido.
The Red Cross said it sent the second shipment from its logistics centre in Panama to the Venezuelan capital Caracas.
Related Story