Pedro Urruchurtu spoke to the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday about what he had endured at the hands of Nicolás Maduro’s regime while being forced to shelter in place for over 400 days. Urruchurtu and four other members of Venezuela’s political opposition were freed in May in a successful U.S. rescue mission.

He and his colleagues were effectively trapped inside the Argentine Embassy in Caracas — where the opposition members fled to, and were sheltered due to the diplomatic status of the embassy. 

The opposition figures were under siege by regime forces who made their lives extremely difficult due to their control of the utilities. Urruchurtu told the council he had endured “five months without electricity, three minutes of water every ten days, rifles pointed at the windows, and dogs trained to bite; only because those in power considered it a crime to direct the campaigns of Maria Corina Machado in the opposition primaries and Edmundo González in the presidential elections. Both won.”

Humberto Villalobos, Pedro Urruchurtu and Magallí Meda, five Venezuelan opposition figures, hold a press conference after spending a year of forced confinement in Argentina’s embassy in Caracas, on May 24, 2025, in Washington, D.C.  (ALEX WROBLEWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

“The world must no longer look away from the brutal reality of what the once-beautiful Venezuela has become. Nicolás Maduro and his enforcers are running a criminal narco-terrorist dictatorship that jails political opponents, tortures dissidents, and crushes any hope of free expression. Pedro’s voice today represents the cries of thousands of Venezuelans who remain imprisoned, persecuted or forced into exile, as slaves to the regime,” UN Watch Executive Director Hillel Neuer told Fox News Digital.

Venezuelan opposition members Humberto Villalobos, Omar Gonzalez, Claudia Macero, Magalli Meda and Pedro Urruchurtu Noselli are pictured at the Argentine embassy, in Caracas, Venezuela, where they have sought asylum, after Argentine diplomats were expelled from Venezuela, Aug. 1, 2024. (Reuters/Leonardo Fernandez Viloria )

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced in a post on X on May 6 that the opposition members, including Urruchurtu, had been rescued in “a precise operation” and brought to the U.S. A few weeks later, Rubio met with the released opposition members. State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said that Rubio had commended the Venezuelan opposition members for their “bravery in the face of Maduro’s relentless repression and tyranny.”

Neuer also expressed gratitude for the Trump administration and Rubio’s actions, which led to Urruchurtu’s release.

“Thank you to the Trump administration and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for their critical role in securing Pedro’s release and the release of his comrades. Once again, proving that strong, principled diplomacy saves lives and advances the cause of freedom for the world,” Neuer told Fox News Digital.