Venezuela leader won’t attend UN rights council meeting

GENEVA – The United Nations says Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro won’t attend a U.N. Human Rights Council meeting next week as originally planned.

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez said in an email Tuesday to reporters that Maduro “will not address the Human Rights Council.”

Gomez said the Venezuelan government had indicated in a diplomatic note a day earlier that the president would speak to the council at the start of its new session on Monday.

Instead, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Alberto Arreaza Montserrat is set to speak to the council on Monday.