QUESTION To U.N. Rights Chief Michelle Bachelet

QUESTION TO MICHELLE BACHELET: What, really, is stopping the UN from acting for Venezuela? Why don't they have the will or courage to enter if only to facilitate humanitarian aid? From 2000 until today, the UN has carried out 14 interventions in Haiti, Syria, South Sudan, Abyei, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur, Timor, Sudan, Liberia, East Timor, Ethiopia and Eritrea. Five of these are currently active. Why, in the face of this violence, hunger and lack of medical attention, does the U.N. keep it's arms crossed instead of helping Venezuela?

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet says sanctions have worsened Venezuela crisis

Michelle Bachelet. Photograph:( AFP )

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AFP Geneva, Switzerland Mar 06, 2019, 06.26 PM (IST)

Sanctions have "exacerbated," the crisis in Venezuela, the UN human rights chief 
said Wednesday after the United States warned it may expand the measures it has 
imposed targeting President Nicolas Maduro's government. In her annual report to
the United Nations Human Rights Council, rights chief Michelle Bachelet also 
levelled tough criticism at Maduro.

"Venezuela clearly illustrates the way violations of civil and political rights – 
including failure to uphold fundamental freedoms, and the independence of key 
institutions – can accentuate a decline of economic and social rights," said 
Bachelet, the former president of Chile. 

Venezuelans, battered by an economic meltdown and a major political crisis, are struggling to access basic goods including food and medicine. 

"This situation has been exacerbated by sanctions," Bachelet said. Washington, which has recognized Venezuela's opposition chief Juan Guaido as the country's leader, imposed sanctions on Venezuela's state oil company PDVSA last month. 

It has also handed Guaido control of Venezuela's bank accounts in the United States.

The US envoy for the crisis in Venezuela, Elliott Abrams, said Tuesday that 
Washington was weighing more punitive measures to increase the pressure on 
Maduro. 

Washington has not ruled out so-called "secondary sanctions" that could target foreign companies or other states that do business with Maduro's government.

Venezuela is wracked by a humanitarian crisis that has seen poverty soar, with an estimated 2.7 million people leaving the country since 2015.