In announcing the decision, Foreign Affairs Minister Yván Gil accused the local office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights of “colonialist, abusive” behavior and fomenting political opposition in the country.

“This decision is made due to the improper role that this institution has developed, which, far from showing it as an impartial entity, has led it to become the private law firm of coup plotters and terrorist groups that permanently conspire against the country,” Gil said in a statement.

The announcement came after the Geneva-based U.N. commissioner condemned the arrest of Rocío San Miguel, a well-known Venezuelan human rights lawyer and military expert.

Her lawyers said they have not been able to verify her whereabouts since Friday morning, when she was detained at an airport outside Caracas.

Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek William Saab said that San Miguel was being held in El Helicoide — a notorious prison where human rights abuses, including torture, have been documented. Saab accused San Miguel of participating in an attempted conspiracy against Maduro and other senior officials.

San Miguel heads the Control Ciudadano, a nonprofit that has investigated and detailed extrajudicial killings by Venezuela’s security forces, as well as the military’s alleged involvement in illegal mining. Her arrest has drawn fierce criticism from the international community, including the United States.

“We are gravely concerned by the detention of Rocío San Miguel and we call for the immediate release of all unjustly detained individuals in Venezuela,” a U.S. State Department spokesperson said. “Such attacks on civil society close space for much-needed dialogue.”

The statement described her as a “steadfast voice for democracy and dialogue” for more than 20 years, and said her arrest and others raise questions about Maduro’s willingness to uphold commitments made in October to pursue democratic reforms “and create a culture of tolerance and political coexistence.”

In October, the United States agreed to ease sanctions on Venezuela’s oil-and-gas industry for six months, in exchange for promises from Maduro to hold freer presidential elections this year. But in recent weeks, that deal has appeared on the verge of falling apart.

Venezuela’s highest court late last month upheld a ban on presidential candidate Maria Corina Machado, who swept the opposition-held primaries last year. A wave of arrests soon followed.

In response, the Biden administration renewed sanctions on Venezuela’s gold-mining industry. It also threatened to reimpose the oil-and-gas sanctions in April absent progress from Maduro.

The Venezuelan government responded in turn by refusing further flights bringing migrants back from the United States — weaponizing the southern border issue that has been a major sticking point for the Biden administration. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has been unable to send deportation flights to Venezuela since late last month.

The closure of the U.N. human rights office will likely make it “much harder” for the U.S. to renew the oil-and-gas licenses in April, said Geoff Ramsey, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council focused on Venezuela.

“The opening of the High Commissioner’s Office in Caracas was a major concession from the Maduro regime,” Ramsey said. “The fact that they’re willing to shut them down is the latest indication that Maduro is willing to call the Biden administration’s bluff.”

Since 2019, the U.N. office in Venezuela has monitored the human rights situation in the country and provided support to civil society. Following San Miguel’s arrest, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights described the detention as a possible “enforced disappearance,” language that the Maduro regime has strongly denounced when it has been used by other human rights organizations locally.

Juanita Goebertus, the director of the Americas division of Human Rights Watch, said the shutdown of the U.N. operation was a “huge concern because the office was one of the only remaining human rights offices that could operate from Venezuela.”

The U.N. Fact-Finding Mission on Venezuela, which has accused Maduro and his inner circle of crimes against humanity, is not allowed to operate within Venezuela. The Maduro government has argued that the mission’s mandate, which expires this year, should not be extended because of the existence of the local high commissioner’s human rights office.

On Thursday, shortly before the shutdown and expulsion announcement, the U.N. office in Geneva noted that San Miguel’s place of detention had been confirmed and that her four relatives had been conditionally released. “Due process guarantees, including right to defence, must be respected,” the office tweeted.

San Miguel, a dual citizen of Spain and Venezuela, was detained by authorities while preparing to board a flight to Miami with her daughter. Five of San Miguel’s family members and associates — including her daughter, two brothers and two former romantic partners — were subsequently reported missing.

Venezuela’s attorney general announced on social media Sunday night that San Miguel was in custody, accusing her of participating in a plot to kill Maduro — charges her attorneys have denied, saying there’s no evidence behind the claims.

San Miguel’s arrest stands as the latest sign that “the Venezuelan government appears to have no concern for what the international community says or how its actions are perceived,” said Laura Dib, the Venezuela program director at the Washington Office on Latin America.

“What we’re seeing is a further closing of the civic space at a time when there’s a push to achieve competitive, free and fair elections,” Dib told The Washington Post.

Although a 2012 case before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights resulted in an order obligating the state to protect San Miguel, over the years she has been repeatedly harassed and defamed by government officials, according to human rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Front Line Defenders.

San Miguel’s legal team was told Monday evening that she had an initial hearing in the headquarters of Venezuela’s intelligence police — and not in court, as dictated by the country’s laws.

“In the most grotesque way, the government followed the same pattern of human rights abuses it applies on political prisoners: disappearing her, disappearing her family, imposing a public defender on her and then submitting shoddy charges at the margin of the law, violating due process,” said her attorney, Theresly Malavé.

Martha Tineo, a human rights lawyer and co-founder of the victim advocacy organization Justicia, Encuentro y Perdón, said the arrest of someone as high-profile as San Miguel sends a chilling message.

“We are all targets,” she said.