"Venezuela, known for the mass poverty and oppression of its people under the socialist regime currently led by dictator Nicolas Maduro, took its recently won seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council on Monday, opening the UN to criticism.
Venezuela won a seat on the council on October amid sharp reproofs from the United States. The South American nation took its seat as the group begins its 43rd session, which runs through March 20.
Maduro rose to power as the successor to Hugo Chavez, the socialist leader with close ties to Cuba's Fidel Castro. Maduro's government has been marked by massive economic ruin that led the United States to recognize another political figure, national assemblyman Juan Guiado, as the acting president of Venezuela...
Human rights groups have also been critical. Anne Bayefsky, director of Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, said the news was a 'clear cut validation of the Trump administration's decision to get off the Council, to withhold funding, and to refuse to legitimize it.'..."