Geneva: Venezuela must find and punish those responsible for the murder of a prominent opposition leader who was gunned down less that two weeks ahead of hotly contested legislative polls, the UN said Friday.
UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has issued warnings before about rights abuses under Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, including in the run up to the vote that could see the opposition take control of parliament for the first time in 16 years.
Luis Manuel Diaz, regional secretary for Accion Democratica party, was shot dead at a campaign event on Wednesday in the central Guarico region.
"I urge the authorities to ensure that the investigation into Luis Diaz's murder is independent and impartial and brings to justice the perpetrators, as well as the masterminds behind the assassination," Zeid said in a statement.
When he was shot, Diaz was standing near Lilian Tintori, the wife of a jailed opposition leader, Leopoldo Lopez -- one of Maduro's most high profile critics.
A statement from the UN agency said "it is not clear" if Tintori was also a target.
Opinion polls indicate that the opposition is poised to win control of the National Assembly for the first time since Maduro's mentor, late leftist firebrand Hugo Chavez, came to power in 1999.
Oil-rich Venezuela has the second-highest murder rate in the world after Honduras: 54 killings per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012, according to the latest UN figures.
Maduro addressed the UN rights council in Geneva earlier this month, in a rare appearance by a head of state, and lashed out at critics of his government's rights record.
AFP
