UN human rights office partly resumes activities in Venezuela

The United Nations human rights watchdog has in part resumed its activities in Venezuela, its chief said on Monday, after it was forced to leave the country nearly 10 months ago following what the government described as a review of its activities.

The U.N.'s High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk made the announcement at a press conference in Geneva in response to a reporter's question.

"We have been able to resume partly our activities," he said, without going into further detail. The head of the international body's human rights office said he hoped to eventually resume prison visits and trial monitoring but did not provide a timeline.

When the office was at full operations, it included a staff of around a dozen foreign members working to pressure the government of President Nicolas Maduro to adhere to its human rights commitments.

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Maduro was proclaimed the winner of last July's contested presidential election by the government-aligned electoral authority and supreme court. But the opposition released thousands of copies of voting machine receipts that it argues show a lopsided win for its candidate, who has since fled to Spain.