Slideshow ( 4 images )

CARACAS (Reuters) - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said its officials were blocked on Tuesday from boarding a plane from Panama to Venezuela, where the government had already closed the door to the visit last week.

The Washington-based Commission, which is the human rights arm of the Organization of American States, was slated to be in Venezuela for a five-day visit to investigate the human rights condition in the country.

But on Tuesday the delegation “was banned from boarding the flight from Panama City to Caracas, according to a notification received by the airline,” Copa Airlines, the IACHR said in a statement.

Copa declined to comment. The Venezuelan Ministry of Information did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The IACHR delegation, which has not visited Venezuela since 2002, was led by President Esmeralda Arosemena, Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão; the rapporteur for freedom of expression, Edison Lanza; and two other specialists.

The commission, condemned the move, saying, “The impediment to entering the country hinders the international human rights obligations assumed by Venezuela (... where) a very serious significant deterioration in the enjoyment of human rights persists.”

The delegation will travel to Cúcuta, a city on the Colombian side of the border with Venezuela, to “gather and document testimonies from victims and family members about the serious human rights violations” in the OPEC nation.

Colombia is the top destination for Venezuelan migrants fleeing the country’s long-running crisis, which has caused widespread shortages of food and medicine.

Venezuela’s top human rights official, Larry Devoe, wrote in a letter released on his Twitter account on Friday that the delegation’s visit would not be authorized because Venezuela left the Organization of American States in April 2019.